Switching to These Diets Rapidly Impacts Your Immune System, Study Finds
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New research shows that following a vegan or keto diet may impact your immune system.
Researchers found that both diets had significant effects on the immune system after just two weeks.
Experts explain the findings.
People follow certain eating plans for all sorts of reasons, whether it be for weight loss, to combat inflammation, or even to live a longer life. Now, new research finds that switching to certain diets—specifically vegan and ketogenic diets—may impact your immune system.
The study, published in Nature Medicine and conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), looked at following either a vegan diet (which eliminates animal products and tends to be high in fiber and low in fat) or a keto diet (which tends to be low in carbs and high in fat), and how each may impact the immune system.
The study consisted of 20 participants who ate as much as desired of either the vegan or keto diets for two weeks, followed by as much as desired of the other diet for two weeks. Throughout the study period, blood, urine, and stool samples were collected for analysis.
Researchers found that switching exclusively to the study diets caused notable changes in all participants. While the study did not specify if the diets made immune systems better or worse, it did show that there were rapid changes in people who switched to either diet. More research needs to be conducted over time for a definitive answer. But, researchers did find that the vegan diet prompted responses linked to innate immunity—the body’s non-specific first line of defense against pathogens, while the keto diet prompted responses associated with adaptive immunity—pathogen-specific immunity built through exposures in daily life and vaccination.
Additionally, the researchers observed that both diets resulted in metabolic changes and shifts in the participants’ microbiomes (communities of bacteria living in the gut).
In other words, this study demonstrated that a two-week vegan diet had a greater impact on our pathways and markers associated with our innate immune system whereas the keto diet had a greater impact on markers associated with our adaptive immune system, explains Kara Wada, M.D., board-certified allergist and immunologist at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. (Note: While innate immunity mounts a general response to any antigen—or toxin, adaptive immunity responds to specific antigens, per the NIH.)
While we don’t know how this may affect people’s immune systems at this time, the study does provide great information to look at the role of more personalized and/or disease-state dietary advice in the future, says Dr. Wada. In her opinion, “this data adds further evidence that diet has a significant potential in disease prevention and treatment, but we need additional studies to parse out who may specifically benefit from a particular diet.”
No matter what eating plan you follow, there are ways to boost your immune system beyond your diet. The single most efficient way to boost your immune system is to make sure you are up to date on all of your vaccines, says Purvi Parikh, M.D., allergist and immunologist with Allergy & Asthma Network. “[Vaccines] are the easiest, most effective intervention.” Along with this, adequate sleep, hydration, exercise, and stress management are extremely important and underrated, Dr. Parikh adds.
Ultimately, what we eat has significant potential to affect our immune system health in a relatively short time, says Dr. Wada. “My concern would be that these are fairly restrictive and hard diets to stick to for the long term. Additionally, we have many larger studies pointing to benefits of plant-forward diets like the Mediterranean diet long-term,” she notes.
This study shows how quickly and profoundly food affects the immune system, says Dr. Parikh, “so what we eat is important.” And remember, it couldn’t hurt to put more immune-boosting foods on your plate!
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