In the above video, I discuss the dangers of low fat dieting, and how many grams of fat per day is optimal for proper gut health and digestive functioning.
Arguing against a low fat diet may seem a bit counter-intuitive to some but, as a nutritional scientist, I can assure you that the popular fad of low fat dieting is not something to be taken lightly, and studies are demonstrating that a long-term low fat diet can be a major contributor to your gut health issues and digestive symptoms.
In the above video, I explain exactly how many grams of fat per day is the perfect amount for optimizing gut health and improving digestion.
Now, why is this so relevant to histamine intolerance?
Digestion is an essential part of overall health and, for clearing histamine from the body. If your gut health and digestion are messed up, there can be knock on effects creating gut bacterial imbalances as well as causing histamine to build up.
The end result is more discomfort and symptoms.
The Dangers of Low Fat Dieting in Histamine Intolerance
Before I continue, I should make it clear that this video is NOT meant to scorn low-fat dieters. In fact, I myself used to be one!
As a young girl, I fell victim to the cycle of low-fat dieting for years, because that’s what marketing, the media, fitness resources and even government guidelines propagate as the ‘correct’ way to be healthy and lose weight.
If you’re subscribed, you will know how that story ended: with the development of a digestive disorder and a severe histamine intolerance that took me years to overcome.
After filtering through countless studies that clearly demonstrate the digestive dangers of these low fat diets, I have absolutely no doubt that my extremely low daily fat intake was a major contributor to the deterioration of my gut health and the development of my histamine intolerance.
To understand how many grams of fat per day is best for you, you must first understand the role of the gallbladder in fat digestion.The gallbladder is responsible for secreting digestive fluids, namely bile, in response to detecting food in the stomach.This digestive fluid provides some of our greatest aid for breaking down difficult to digest meals, such as those containing high levels of fat.
When fat is present in the stomach, the gallbladder contracts and ejects a large proportion of bile to assist digestion, however when little or no fat is present, the gallbladder releases minimal amounts of bile, as the aid of such digestive fluid is not highly necessary.
This detection process works great when your diet is varied and balanced – however, several issues can arise when you consistently have low levels of daily fat intake for an extended period of time.
This is because low fat meals do not produce maximal emptying of the gallbladder, while also reducing stimulation of CCK, a hormone which stimulates bile release and the secretion of pancreatic enzymes.
This means that low daily fat intake result in reduced production of both digestive fluids and digestive enzymes.
Through this process, diets which consistently encourage low daily fat intake can, over time, contribute to poor gut health and digestive symptoms.
Let me highlight a few of the clear issues here...
First off, a reduction in digestive fluid and enzymes is going to result in poor breakdown of foods and, therefore, poor nutrient absorption. This chain effect can end up resulting in nutrient deficiencies which can contribute to a variety of body-wide disorders.
These nutrient disorders can cause several problems including an inability to produce sufficient diamine oxidase enzymes, which are responsible for breaking down histamine.
Additionally, a reduction in digestive juices and increase in undigested foods means that digestion and motility will naturally slow down. The major issue with this is that, if food is not passing through your system fast enough and gut motility is slower than normal, an environment is created for bad bacteria to proliferate.
The end result of this digestive slowing includes bacterial imbalances which also cause a host of symptoms, including an over-production of bacterially-produced histamine.
These are just a few of the direct examples of how a low fat diet can impact gut health, overall health and contribute to higher than normal histamine levels.
However, the list goes on.
So, the big question – how many grams of fat per day is the right amount for you?
As always, you’ve got a scientist on your side and I’m here to make things easy!
How Many Grams of Fat to Maximize Digestion and Nutrient Absorption
In order to appropriately kickstart your gallbladder and digestion into gear, you need to reach a perfect balancing act of consuming enough fat to produce maximal release of digestive fluids and enzymes, while also not exceeding the amount of fat that your body and digestion can handle.
That balance of how many grams of fat per day to consume, appears to be reached by consuming a minimum of 10g of fat per meal.
Several studies have shown that consuming a minimum of 10g fat per meal results in maximum gallbladder emptying.
Studies have shown that even higher amounts of fat may achieve even greater effects for digestive enzyme secretion. So, if you can tolerate it, you’re welcome to increase your daily fat intake to much more than this, but if you’re just starting out, 10g of fat per meal is an absolute minimum for optimal digestive capacity.
As a personal example, if you want to know how many grams of fat per day I consume, I experience the best digestive results between 20-30g of fat per meal.
Anything above is welcome, but doesn’t appear to enhance gallbladder emptying any further - it simply depends on what works best for you. Slow increases are often best to avoid any digestive discomfort and, as always, allow your body time to get used to the changes.
Additionally, consuming enough fat with meals has actually shown to better control blood sugar levels to aid in weight regulation. So, the likely result of this is a combination of weight regulation, improved digestion, improved bacterial and hormonal balance as well as often a reduction in symptoms.
Histamine Intolerance and Gut Health
Once again, these conclusions on fat consumption are not only good for gut health in general, but also can assist with improving histamine intolerance.
As gut health is a huge underlying contributor to histamine intolerance, dietary considerations are one of the most important starting points to improving histamine intolerance symptoms.
If you are interested in trying out a low histamine diet, click below to get my free diet guide which details exactly what you should and should not be eating to improve gut health, reduce inflammation and improve histamine intolerance symptoms.
Put your health in nature's hands.
Anita Tee, Nutritional Scientist
Anita Tee
My name is Anita Tee. I'm a nutritional scientist who specializes in histamine intolerance. I hold a Master of Science in Personalized Nutrition and a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Psychology.For the past ten years, I have used my experience in nutritional and medical health sciences to create a scientifically backed, natural approach to healthcare that relies 100% on evidence-based research.As I previously suffered from - and overcame - histamine intolerance, my focus is to increase recognition and expand the available resources and protocols available for resolving this particular disorder. To date, I have helped over 4,000 individuals fully resolve or better manage their histamine intolerance symptoms.
