Can a high-fat diet make you fat? If you’ve done a little research or self-experimenting, you have probably read or noticed that a diet that is moderate or high in fat, while also low in carbohydrates, can work well for weight loss in addition to improving other conditions. Recent concerns have been raised, however, that higher fat diets may lead to something called endotoxemia. Endotoxemia is what happens when a compound known as LPS (a component of bacterial cell membranes) leaks from the gut into the blood stream. This can cause inflammation and insulin resistance. So does this mean that we need to rethink low carb diets? This video contains what I hope will be a brief but enlightening narrative on this issue.

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Does a High-Fat Diet Make You Fat?

Dr. Michael Ruscio: Does eating a high-fat diet make you fat?

Hey, this is Dr. Ruscio. I wanted to briefly throw a thought out there that I think will help a lot of people.

If you’ve been following the huge bolus of gut research that’s been published over the past couple years, you’ve probably heard something about endotoxins or endotoxemia or lipopolysaccharides, these bacterial compounds that tend to leak through the gut when you eat a high-fat diet.

Essentially, the bottom line of this point is if you eat a lot of fat, you’ll have more LPS (or lipopolysaccharides) that get in the bloodstream through the gut, and that can cause inflammation and insulin resistance.

This is one of the main points that have been used to criticize a higher fat diet when viewed through the context of the gut and gut health and/or leaky gut.

So again, the point that’s being made here is that eating a high-fat diet increases lipopolysaccharide, lipopolysaccharide being this fraction of bacterial cell walls. When that leaks in through the gut to the bloodstream, it causes inflammation and insulin resistance. So therefore, you should not eat a high-fat diet.

It seems to be true that eating a high-fat diet can cause this LPS migration and may partially cause insulin resistance.

However, I think a really important counterpoint to that is if you’re eating a higher fat or moderate fat diet but you’re also eating a low carb diet, then the lower carb diet also has an effect on helping to regulate insulin sensitivity.

And it’s my estimation that if you weigh out both of those, you actually come to a net insulin favorable environment if you’re going to eat a little bit more fat and fewer carbs.

So again, eating the fat might cause this LPS to leak through the gut. The LPS may cause insulin resistance, yes. However, those effects, I think, can be almost completely counteracted if you’re eating a low carbohydrate diet and keep you very insulin sensitive. The reason I say this is it has been clearly shown in numerous weight loss trials that low carb diets work.

So is there need to get really freaked out about this LPS piece? I don’t think so, because I think you can very easily maintain your insulin sensitivity as long as you’re eating a healthy diet that is moderate or higher in fat, which would also be lower in carb. Definitely can’t do high fat, high carb.

So a deep concept, but hopefully, for those of you who are wrestling with that, this will be helpful. This is Dr. Ruscio, and I hope this helps. Thanks!

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What do you think? I would like to hear your thoughts or experience with this.

Dr. Ruscio is your leading functional and integrative doctor specializing in gut related disorders such as SIBO, leaky gut, Celiac, IBS and in thyroid disorders such as hypothyroid and hyperthyroid. For more information on how to become a patient, please contact our office. Serving the San Francisco bay area and distance patients via phone and Skype.