5 Signs Your "Clean" Diet is Wrecking Your Gut Health

A lot of marketing slogans preach about how food that is natural is more beneficial to you than foods that are processed, filled with artificial ingredients, loaded with artificial sweeteners, or stuffed with preservatives. This is because foods that contain these ingredients routinely cause digestive problems, including within your gut microbiome. Certainly, this provides ample incentive to look for other foods to consume.

So the solution is for you to go out of your way to consume clean, whole foods, right? Well, even if you follow this rational solution, it is still possible to damage your digestive system and harm your gut. In order to help you diagnose whether or not your clean diet is actually the cause of the latest round of digestive discomfort you’ve been experiencing, here are five signals your body will send you to tell you that your clean diet is quietly wrecking the health of your gut.

1. You always feel bloated and gassy

One of the first signs that your clean diet is doing harm to your body will be feelings of persistent bloatedness and gas after your meals. If you eat clean, there is often a clear culprit behind this: Fiber. 

Fruits and vegetables are two truly healthy food options, and many of them have the added convenience of being very easy to consume raw. The problem this creates is that if you’re a consumer of fruits and vegetables in large quantities, the fiber from those clean and healthy foods will ferment in your gut, and essentially overload your digestive system. The side effect to this is often a persistent and uncomfortable emergence of gas.

2. Your toilet habits are highly inconsistent

One week, you may be dealing with crippling diarrhea, and the next week, you’re painfully constipated. For some reason you have difficulty generating any sort of consistency when it comes to toilet time, and whether it seems like you always need to go, or you never can, you’re uncomfortable either way.

If you’re a clean eater whose body can’t seem to eliminate solid waste with any regularity, it may be because your clean diet is too restrictive. One very easy way this can happen is if you’re consuming too little fiber in your diet despite its cleanliness. When this happens, your bacteria may turn against you, consuming the mucus barrier of your colon for the nutrients they need, and causing inflammation or infection as a result.

3. You have increased stomach sensitivity to food

There are several ways to eat clean that aren’t necessarily healthy. Technically, it’s possible to limit your total consumption of food items to two or three foods, all of which are clean by definition, and then gradually feel worse the longer you limit yourself to only these foods.

This may be because you’re starving the different bacteria of your gut of the foods they’re specialized in breaking down, but it may also be because you’re overloading on certain types of clean foods while omitting others, and depriving yourself of critical micronutrients. An absence of vitamins and minerals like vitamin B12, magnesium, zinc, and iron can all lead to digestive problems like lower microbial resistance, nerve disruption, and leaky gut.

4. You are consistently low on energy 

If you feel drained, foggy, or sleepy even though you’re getting plenty of sleep or calories, it might be because your body is having difficulty directly absorbing nutrients from the food you’re eating. This can become a very nasty cycle, because your lack of food diversity limits your body’s ability to feed the villi in your small intestine, which are responsible for absorbing calories from macronutrients. As a consequence, your villi can’t perform their job, and the macronutrients slide by without contributing to your caloric intake. 

Conversely, if you’re not getting enough micronutrients, your body will be unable to make the stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, and bile that are needed to break food down. As a result, you may technically be consuming several clean foods, but your restrictive diet has rendered your body unable to extract the full benefits from them.

5. You have signs of compromised immunity

When people switch to clean diets, or when they increase their dedication in applying cleanliness to their eating habits, they usually expect certain things  that they associate with clean living to improve. This includes things like skin health and clarity, immune resistance, and general feelings of wellness. All too often, the opposite occurs.

Rather than clearer skin, you may have sudden breakouts of acne or eczema. Instead of feeling more immune to illnesses, it may seem like you’re getting sick more than ever. There can be multiple reasons for this, including the elimination of foods that were contributing the sort of micronutrients to your diet that were helping it to ward off illnesses. 

Now add to this the fact that the overconsumption of raw foods that haven’t been heated to remove bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and it becomes easier to understand why clean eating doesn’t necessarily mean healthier eating in every sense if certain practices aren’t adhered to. 

Clean your diet; don’t sterilize it

If there’s a common theme to the gut health problems that accompany clean eating, it’s that being overly restrictive in your food choices can cause you to unintentionally eliminate nutrients that are absolutely essential for sustaining your basic health. Bearing this in mind, you’ll want to ensure that your efforts to eat clean don’t become so drastic that you scrub necessary foods right off the menu.

Summary:

1. Eating clean can be a direct cause of digestive discomfort if certain healthy conditions aren’t being met.

2. Overloading your body with clean foods that contain fiber can initiate fermentation that can generate a significant amount of gas, bloat, and discomfort.

3. If you have trouble establishing regular bathroom habits, it may be because your version of a clean diet is too restrictive, and leaves you lacking the fiber to maintain constant movement through your excretory system.

4. Another problem caused by restrictive diets is that you can starve your specialized gut bacteria of the foods they’re accustomed to eating, leading directly to stomach discomfort due to bacteria attacking the lining of your stomach.

5. If you are experiencing low energy combined with digestive discomfort, it’s possible that a lack of micronutrients has impaired the ability of your small intestine to digest food.

6. When your stomach discomfort is combined with increased susceptibility to illness, it may be the result of consuming clean foods that are loaded with bacteria resulting from being uncooked, along with a shortage of essential micronutrients.