Why Are You Bloated And Constipated On The Ketogenic Diet?
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Many people complain of being bloated to the point where they can see their stomach sticking out when they walk by a mirror. The other common complaint with the ketogenic diet is being constipated.
At the beginning, people typically really like a ketogenic / low-carb diet. Then the bloating and constipation starts ….
A Build -Up of Endotoxins Starts the Problems
The naturally occurring bacteria in your gut release these endotoxins. If these endotoxins penetrate your body, they cause inflammation. That can cause many things ranging from depression to pain and insulin resistance and of course, bloating.
If you have inflammation in your gut (stomach and intestines), you will have a problem with the detoxification process in the bile pathway. This causes you to reabsorb toxins rather than eliminate them. This breakdown of the detoxification process becomes one of the main problems with ketogenic diet.
Eating a meal that is high in saturated fat causes these endotoxins to enter the body. So if you eat a ketogenic diet, the endotoxins are entering your body at a high rate…. so how do you stop it?
The way to combat this is to base your diet around eating more fruits, more superfoods and more vegetables.
It Makes a Difference with the Types of Foods You Eat on a Ketogenic Diet.
For instance, if you eat a lot of processed meats, bacon, sausage and cheese, you will have lots of exotoxins entering your body. If you eat those same things but add the right kinds of fruits, veggies and superfoods, you will greatly stop the endotoxins from entering your body.
This of course, reduces bloat and constipation.
Also, you will be able to follow your keto plan, if you do it right.
There are lots of various strategies people use to eat more fruits, vegetables, and superfoods while on the ketogenic diet. The best strategy, however, will be the strategy that you will personally follow on a daily basis.
I created 3 options of strategies that I give to my patients: a beginners option, an intermediate option, and an advanced option. These options follow the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet and all help with both weight loss and anti-aging.
Below are 3 articles that I recommend you read if you are doing Keto. Start with the meal plan for anti-aging and weight loss article … and if you want to understand the details of how it works, read the other two articles.
The Western Diet Doesn’t Have Enough Superfoods:
When people eat a western based diet that characteristically does not contain a variety and abundance of fruits, vegetables and superfoods, they have a decrease in the bacteria that makes sure the gut lining is healthy. There is typically a decrease in the good bacteria (Bifidobacterium) and an increase in bad bacteria (e coli).
This also causes an interference in fat metabolism and also causes people to become bloated.
This is obviously a problem because the majority of people want to lose body fat and this slows down the process.
When there are large numbers of bad bacteria in your gut, it will cause inflammation, insulin resistance, bloating and constipation.
We know that reducing the amount of carbs you eat will benefit insulin resistance, but you need to reduce carbs while maintaining or increasing the fiber you eat. The way to add more fiber is with fruits, vegetables and superfoods.
Fiber Reduces Being Bloated
When people reduce the amount of carbs they are eating, they typically also have a large decrease in the amount of fiber they are eating. The problem with this is that fiber is very important for your microbiome, which are the good bacteria that live in your gut. You need to focus on eating more plant based foods such as fruit, vegetables and superfoods.
Not eating enough fiber leads to being bloated and constipated. The fiber should ideally come from fruits, vegetables, and superfoods.
“Note that raw vegetables are typically better than cooked vegetables to replace the microbiome”
The Obese have a Bad Microbiome
People who are obese generally have less diversity in their microbiome (the bacteria living in the intestines). This is also a common problem with people who eat a strict ketogenic diet. The common link is that both groups do not eat enough fruits, vegetables and superfoods.
This is the form of the Ketogenic Diet that I prefer: Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
After some trial and error, you will find what version of the ketogenic diet that you like.
I put my patients on the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (link) specifically to help repair and shift the microbiome to add more good bacteria.
Drink A Superfood Smoothie To Reduce Bloating
This reduces inflammation, reduces insulin resistance and reduces bloating. I easily do this by having my patients drink at least one superfood smoothie per day that is full of superfoods and fiber.
I have found that when I gave people lists of raw vegetables to consume on a daily basis, they did not do it. Some people may make a salad for 2 or 3 days in a row, but then they typically stop doing it. That is why I switched to smoothies. People generally prefer smoothies over salads, they are faster to make, smoothies taste better than salads and people love to drink them for breakfast or lunch.
We have over 50 different superfood smoothie recipes (link).
You can filter for “low sugar” recipes, which will help keep your body in ketosis longer throughout the day than our recipes that are higher in sugar (from fruit).
You Can Reduce Bloating With Your Coffee
If you’re a coffee drinker, I recommend adding superfoods to your coffee. Many people will add cacao or cinnamon.
We have cacao (Ancient Chocolate) and cinnamon (Ancient Delight) superfood mixes that I recommend instead … because they each have 9 superfoods in them, and taste great in your coffee (but you will want to blend them in your coffee since these superfood mixes contain whole seeds).
Many of you are probably already keto coffee (or also known as “Bulletproof Coffee”). I recommend adding superfoods to this to turn in into a Superfood Keto Coffee.
The superfood mixes will keep you in ketosis while providing you will very important micronutrients and antioxidants that are lacking in a typical ketogenic diet.
The link below will take you to our Superfood Keto Coffee recipe and also better explain why I recommend adding superfoods to your coffee – especially when on the keto diet.
Coffee drinkers: try replacing your entire breakfast with this instead.
Coffee drinkers: try replacing your entire breakfast with this instead.
Additional Resources
Ketogenic Meal Plan Strategies for Anti-Aging and Weight Loss
I highly recommend starting with this article.
I list out 3 options in this article: a beginner option, an intermediate option, and an advanced option. Pick one and get started today.
You can pick any option you want. Any and all have massive benefits to both weight loss and anti-aging.
Ketogenic Diet Articles:
Do you want to better understand how the ketogenic diet works? We have 2 articles to help you become an expert in keto:
Recipes:
Coffee drinkers: try replacing your entire breakfast with this instead.
How to Make Smoothies to Target Your Health Problems:
Here is a video where we will walk you through how to find smoothie recipes that target your specific health problems.
Testimonials
Uncle Jerry
Uncle Jerry lost 70 lbs in 7 months. It’s been over 2.5 years and he is still going strong!
Uncle Jerry did a smoothie detox his first 4 weeks (only drank superfood smoothies, no food). After that, he followed the “intermediate option”.
“Not Hungry. Lost 13lbs in 1 Month. Increased Energy. No Low Blood Sugar.”
A testimonial from one of our customers who we met at a nutrition conference in Portland. Her daughter is an NTP (Nutritional Therapy Practitioner) and recommended our smoothies to her mom when the smoothie recipes she was making were spiking her blood sugar and making her hungry.
Jerry was told by his doctor that he was about to go on blood pressure medication if he didn’t change what he was doing.
Matt Fitzgerald (co-founder of My Nutrition Advisor) hired Jerry (owner of a print brokerage firm called Smart Spend Media Inc) to print our smoothie Recipe Book. While Jerry was helping get the recipe book production-ready for print, he started taking the advice of the book and made his first superfood smoothie. In just 6-8 weeks, Jerry lost 25 lbs and lowered his blood pressure. His doctor visit after that went excellent and no blood pressure was prescribed!
Oasis to Zen Spa Owner, Cheri Petroni
“I lost 50 lbs, skin cleared up, and got off anti-depressents, just by using superfood smoothies.”
“These Recipes fixed by Hypothyroid”
“My hypothyroid was so bad that I would go to my car and sleep when I had a break at work. I was a cheerleader for many years including all through high school and for a professional team. I have had such low energy and weight gain the last few years that I had to give up cheer-leading.”
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