What About Constipation After Low-Carb Keto?
The biggest problem with low-carb keto diets is constipation. This is because keto diets are usually rich in fat and have a relatively low dietary fiber intake, a key nutrient that promotes bowel movements and prevents constipation. In addition, the body needs time to adapt to the new metabolic state during the initial period of the keto diet, during which constipation may also occur.
Relationship Between Low Carb and Constipation
Many of you know that the main cause of constipation after low carb: is a drop in insulin levels, which leads to a large amount of drainage from the kidneys, which subsequently leads to a loss of minerals and dry stools caused by desalination and dehydration, leading to constipation. So the first thing we must consider is hydration and salt supplementation.
→ Saltwater supplementation
Because low carb can be so dehydrating at first, you can just drink salt water, the best-being sea salt water with a higher mineral content.
→ Supplemental magnesium
Add magnesium supplements. Many people will think that low carb will lead to a magnesium deficiency, but, it doesn’t, a normal low-carb diet will not lead to a magnesium deficiency, there may be some effects in the early stages.
Most people will have a magnesium deficiency because of a high-carb diet, grains, and legumes eaten in excess, and a magnesium deficiency can lead to a lot of problems, constipation being just one of them. However, post keto constipation, supplementing with magnesium can also solve constipation in some people.
→ Eat more vegetables
This traditional practice works for some people because dietary fiber is not well digested, and consuming more of it will increase the portion size of your stool and push it out.
→ Eat more and do some exercise
A lot of people start low carb and eat even less, where they used to have a bowel movement once a day, but now they have one once every 3 days. If you eat a little more and exercise a little more it may work, this will work for people who eat very little, fast regularly, and are sedentary. In fact, generally speaking, these people just poop less, not really constipated.
→ Probiotics and prebiotics
There are also some constipation problems, caused by the imbalance of intestinal flora, and the supplementation of probiotics, and prebiotics, the effect is still good, especially for the elderly and small children, but the effect is more obvious.
→ Food Elimination
There are very many foods that may trigger constipation, and everyone is different. Eating the wrong things is the main cause of constipation. If you were not constipated before and suddenly become severely constipated after low carb, you may be eating the wrong things. You need to observe your major dietary changes, after low carb, some foods that you eat too much of may also exacerbate constipation, if constipation becomes severe, the foods you need to eliminate are:
Dairy, broccoli, most nuts (especially large almonds), beans, celery, tomato skins, raw coconut meat, avocado, and zucchini, as these foods have too much dietary fiber and some people may experience discomfort if they eat too much of them.
Relationship Between Dietary Fiber and Constipation
I’m also going to focus here on the fact that I previously thought that dietary fiber was useful for all constipation, but some of the latest research I’ve seen has found that this is not the case.
The conventional wisdom is that dietary fiber is not well digested, and when it enters the intestines, it pushes the feces forward, which is equivalent to eating more food, and has a certain laxative effect.
This foreign study is very interesting, they looked for 63 long-term constipation subjects, 41 subjects with no dietary fiber diet, 16 with reduced dietary fiber, and 6 adhered to a high dietary fiber diet.
The first group, which was at the beginning of the experiment, all had constipation problems, along with various other problems. The second group, with increased dietary fiber, not only did their constipation problems not subside, but their anal bleeding and pain worsened. Focusing on the last two, after decreasing dietary fiber, there was relief from each symptom.
And after 0 dietary fiber, all the symptoms disappeared and returned to normal banana poop, and they had one bowel movement every day, very regularly. Those in the high fiber group, on the other hand, only had a bowel movement every 6.83 days, a world of difference.
In the end, the researchers concluded that idiopathic constipation was greatly improved after reducing dietary fiber, or even not consuming it. So, for people with chronic constipation problems, increasing dietary fiber may not always be effective.
→ Why is this so?
We all know that dietary fiber is not well digested when it enters the small intestine, but when it enters the large intestine, some bacteria can break down some of the dietary fiber (water-soluble) to produce short-chain fatty acids, which can provide nutrients to the intestinal cells, but only after they have been converted to ketone bodies first.
Some water-soluble dietary fibers are fermented and broken down in the intestines, and this is when hydrogen is produced, leading to bloating. Also, after FODMAP foods are ingested, methane is produced after fermentation and breakdown in the gut, and this can lead to constipation. For those of you who have Intestinal Stress Syndrome (IBS), you should really try the low FODMAPs diet.