High fat diets may impact your gut microbial population

Read on to know how high fat diets may impact the gut bacteria!

High fat diets are the biggest enemy of our health and they not only lead to obesity, heart problems, and type 2 diabetes but they also alter the bacterial integrity of our stomach and raise the biomarkers of inflammation. According to recent research, these high fat diets also interact differently with the gut microorganisms and impact the bacterial community of the intestines.

Westernized diets are quite synonymous with high fat meals and have been associated with various health problems such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart problems. The fat rich meals interact differently with the gut microbiome or the bacterial community present in the intestines. These high fat diets lead to an unfavorable change in the population of the healthy bacterial community of the gut, which may negatively impact our health. So, the westernized high fat meals or diets such as paleo or keto may interact differently with the gut microbiome as compared to a low-fat meal with plenty of fruits and vegetables.

According to a study, the high fat diet decreases the population of beneficial bacteria that

produces short-chain fatty acids,

regulates inflammation, and

protects the cell lining of the intestines.

High fat diets are also associated with increased inflammation and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. This is because, in the absence of sufficient amounts of carbohydrates in the diet, the gut microorganisms lack adequate energy sources and thus the short chain fatty acids are produced.

However, there are some limitations to this finding as the high fat diet interacts differently with different individuals. High fat diets such as keto are also beneficial in conditions like epilepsy, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

So, high fat diets may be related to loss of diversity of gut microbiome and should not be continued for a long duration.

However, the paleo diet, which involves consuming plenty of natural products may not necessarily negatively impact the gut microbiome. This means the high fat diets should ideally be combined with plenty of fruits and vegetables to make up for the low fiber content in them.