Study: Ketogenic diet has potential to treat irritable bowel syndrome

Although the ketogenic diet is not medically recommended for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome or other intestinal disorders, the review notes that this diet may help reduce intestinal wall permeability, modulate immune system function, promote mucosal production, and produce the same short-chain fatty acids found in plant-based diets, which have been shown to be beneficial to intestinal health.

The authors address two main criticisms of the ketogenic diet: that fiber is not only good for health but also necessary for the body, and that animal fats are harmful to the gut microbiome.

One challenge in ketogenic diet research is how to define a high-fat diet. According to the review, in animal studies, animals fed low-carbohydrate diets are often fed diets that are low in fiber and contain refined sugars, soybean oil, and lard. This combination seems close to the standard American diet, which contains many harmful components, but is far from the ingredients included in the therapeutic ketogenic diet.

“No wonder people are confused — because they’re trying to conflate the two, and they’re really two different things,” Alison Gannett, an organic farmer and environmental scientist, told The Epoch Times.

Ms. Gannett prefers the term “carb-reduced therapy” because of the variety of definitions of the keto diet. She tends to eat more vegetables, nine cups of vegetables a day, while other keto dieters may lean more toward meat. In her view, a tailored diet that includes a variety of high-quality ingredients and low-carb options should be distinguished from popular weight-loss keto diets, which are often high in red meat and cheese.

Ms. Gannett is the founder of Personalized Anticancer Nutrition, a company that helps clients do special DNA and microbiome testing to develop personalized diet plans for clients to keep their bodies in a fat-burning state. Microbiome testing is done by examining stool samples to assess the abundance of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms in the colon.

Ms. Murphy pointed out that many people who already consume large amounts of bread, rice and pasta do not understand how food is metabolized and when they begin a ketogenic diet, their dietary choices focus only on low-carb alternatives rather than on finding whole foods that are naturally low in carbohydrates.

“The biggest mistake on the keto diet is to take your preconceived ideas about diet from your past when you were eating processed foods and apply them to the keto diet instead of rethinking it holistically,” she says. “The problem is that you’re switching from one processed food to another.”