UPDATED BY FRANZISKA SPRITZLER, RD, CDCES
A well-formulated ketogenic diet is considered anti-inflammatory, which is one reason it can be so effective improving health and promoting weight loss. By significantly reducing your intake of sugar and refined carbs, you’re also reducing the foods that tend to promote inflammation.
Let’s take a closer look at how a keto lifestyle can support a healthier, less inflamed body.
What is Inflammation?
Inflammation is a normal and essential part of the body’s immune response that helps protect us from injury and infection. But when inflammation becomes chronic, it can start working against us instead of for us.
Persistent, low-grade inflammation has been linked to a wide range of symptoms like joint and muscle pain, fatigue, headaches, and digestive issues. More importantly, it’s increasingly associated with serious health conditions, including autoimmune disease, psychiatric disorders, and neurogenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a central role in the body’s inflammatory response and immune defense. This protein complex is part of the innate immune system, which is our first line of defense against unfamiliar pathogens like viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
Discovered in 2002, the NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in chronic inflammation and several autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. When overactivated, it can lead to excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, contributing to disease progression.
Researchers are now exploring ways to regulate NLRP3 activity, with peptide-based inhibitors emerging as promising, targeted therapies. By modulating this pathway, there may be potential to restore immune balance and improve outcomes in inflammation-driven disorders.
How Does the Ketogenic Diet Help with Inflammation?
A clean ketogenic diet naturally emphasizes many anti-inflammatory foods while cutting out those known to promote inflammation. Take a look at the lists below to see which foods can help calm inflammation and which ones may be best to avoid.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods
The following foods may help support a healthy inflammatory response in the body, thanks to their nutrient profiles and potential anti-inflammatory properties:
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- Avocados
- Avocado oil
- Fatty fish (tuna, salmon, herring)
- Spinach
- Chard
- Collards
- Kale
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
Inflammatory Foods
Including anti-inflammatory foods is important, but so is limiting those that may promote inflammation, such as like sugar, refined carbs, starches, and vegetable oils. The foods below are typically excluded from a well-formulated ketogenic diet:
- Sugars
- Processed grains (wheat, rice, barley)
- Starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams)
- High fructose fruit (bananas, pineapple, oranges)
- Corn oil
- Safflower oil
- Soybean oil
- Processed Foods
The Role Ketones Play in Fighting Inflammation
When you’re consistently following a well-formulated ketogenic diet, your body remains in a state of nutritional ketosis, marked by the production of the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB). Research suggests that BHB and other ketones may lower inflammation by activating genes that help mitochondria — the energy-producing parts of our cells — work more efficiently, while also lowering oxidative stress, which can damage cells over time. In addition, emerging research suggests that BHB can potentially block the NLRP3 inflammasome. Finally, ketogenic diets have been shown to help reduce neuroinflammation, a contributing factor in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Clinical research from Virta Health also shows that nutritional ketosis can lower inflammatory markers in people with type 2 diabetes. In a continuous remote care intervention, participants following a ketogenic diet showed significant reductions in both white blood cell count and C-reactive protein (CRP) — two key markers of inflammation — at the one- and two-year marks. Notably, the CRP reduction at one year (35–40%) was similar to that seen with high-dose statin therapy.
The Final Word
With benefits that can be life-changing for some, it’s worth exploring with your healthcare provider how a ketogenic diet may help manage inflammation—even as a preventive approach. A well-formulated keto diet has been shown to reduce chronic pain, support immune health, and improve symptoms of autoimmune conditions. It starts with reducing carbs, eliminating added sugars, and focusing on healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, and coconut oil. When done properly, a ketogenic lifestyle can be both sustainable and deeply supportive of overall well-being.
