Research

Hormonal

High-fat diets induce metabolic endotoxemia by increasing intestinal permeability and LPS translocation, leading to chronic low-grade inflammation and insulin resistance via the TLR-4 pathway.

High-fat meals can cause a temporary spike in inflammatory markers (endotoxemia) by allowing bacterial toxins (LPS) to enter your bloodstream. This is more pronounced with high-fat diets than high-carb diets. Eating fiber and fruits with meals may help mitigate this inflammatory response.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
high-fat feeding reduced the expression of epithelial tight junction proteins occludin and ZO-1, leading to increased intestinal permeability and LPS levels... LPS... can trigger the inflammatory process by binding to the CD14 toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) complex
Giovanni Musso et al. · Diabetes Care · 2010

Why this rating

Supported by multiple animal studies and human observational data linking high-fat meals to endotoxemia and inflammation.

Source

Obesity, Diabetes, and Gut Microbiota

Giovanni Musso et al. · Diabetes Care · 2010

DOI 10.2337/dc10-0556

narrative_reviewCited 666×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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