What Can Boost Immunity? (Chinese Subtitles)
/In continuation of our Keto Diet series, internist Dr. Mark Savant explains how the keto diet affects the immune system.
Transcript:
Will the keto diet lower your immune system?
Dr. Savant:
No, it won't lower the immune system. It actually can help enhance the immune system. But there's another question about COVID. It won't protect you from COVID, though. So still get your vaccines and your booster.
Esther Situ (Nutritionist, Diabetes Educator, AAMG Health Education Manager):
It helps prevent apoptosis, right? The best cells have to die so that it always renews the best cells possible?
Dr. Savant:
It’s so that the best cells can survive, and the cells that are not so good will be cleared out by the immune system.
Esther:
So this will apply to both fasting and ketogenic diet, right? Do you have to do both, or you can do one or the other?
Dr. Savant:
You can do one or the other, but the ketogenic diet, in a way, is like mimicking a fasting state in the body. So if you're doing intermittent fasting, during the period of time when you eat, yes, you may have some rice and maybe even a little sugar now and then, not too much. So you will have carbohydrates. But in a ketogenic diet, you don't have any carbohydrates, it’s very little.
Esther:
In the nutrition world, we think if you keep your carbohydrate intake below 120 grams, then you're automatically likely to generate ketone. So do you count your carbs at less than 120 grams? Do you believe in that theory?
Dr. Savant:
Well, what we see in real life is that for a ketogenic diet, most people have to be under at least 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, and a strict ketogenic diet is under 25 grams of carbohydrates a day, not including carbohydrates from vegetables.
Esther:
So you said you do eat a few carbs. What kind of carbs do you eat during a ketogenic diet?
Dr. Savant:
I did the ketogenic diet before, but I don't have diabetes so I'm not doing it now. I didn't eat any carbohydrates other than vegetables. But now, I'm not following the ketogenic diet, but I still follow a low-carbohydrate and a high-fat diet and I will do some intermittent fasting.
And so, I usually won't eat for maybe 15 or 16 hours from dinner the night before till lunch the next day. And when I do eat, it may be some, you know, soup with a little bit of meat, all the foods that I talked about, or I may have a salad with a little bit of fatty meat, some cheese, and some nuts. Somebody asked a question about fruit and nuts. The best fruits, the lowest sugar fruits, are berries, blueberries, raspberries. Anything like that.
I like to always think in the terms of culture, right? I grew up in Chinese culture, even though I don't look like it, but it's very close to me, so I know those foods very well. Chinese food that's made at home, the traditional Chinese food, is very very healthy. It's when you go to the restaurant and, you know, things get sweetened up more, they put more sugar, and that's not traditional.
Summary:
The keto diet won’t lower your immune system but can enhance it by maintaining the best cells while removing the bad ones
People following a keto diet usually have a daily intake of 50 grams of carbohydrates or less. Under a stricter keto diet, it is under 25 grams of carbohydrates a day, not including vegetables.
