By Elena Voropay

Eating a low-carbohydrate diet, like the once fashionable Atkins diet, may adversely affect the numbers of certain types of bacteria in the gut. This is besides the possibly higher risk of clogged arteries and heart attack, if you skip your carbs for a long time. in the long-term.

A lot of people try to lose weight by eating very few carbohydrate-containing foods. Their diet may range anywhere from 35 down to just four per cent of all daily calories. And at that level, your intestinal bacteria can't form properly - no wonder you may suffer from constipation, dehydration, headaches. If you add that absorption of all nutrients goes down on a low-carb diet due to poor digestion, you have a fountain of health desasters waiting - forget simple cancer prevention.

The low-carb diet may adversely affect the gut bacterial populations that beneficially produce a substance called butyrate, which has been shown to be important for keeping the gut healthy including helping to prevent colorectal cancer. The reason is that the proportions of certain groups of colonic bacteria respond to dietary carbohydrate intake. 

If low carbohydrate diets are to be consumed for long periods of time, it may be important to ensure that there is enough of the right sort of carbohydrate in the diet which can be used by the bacteria to produce compounds such as butyrate, so good for your gut health and general well-being. Make sure you continue to eat plenty of sources of fibre - such as fruit and vegetables.

If you are interested in this subject, you may find more here:

Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume 73, Number 4, Pages 1073-1078
"Reduced Dietary Intake of Carbohydrates by Obese Subjects Results in Decreased Concentrations of Butyrate and Butyrate-Producing Bacteria in Feces"
Authors: S.H. Duncan, A. Belenguer, G. Holtrop, A.M. Johnstone, H.J. Flint, and G.E. Lobley