[HN Gopher] Diet and its effects on the gut biome in the pathoph...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Diet and its effects on the gut biome in the pathophysiology of
       mental disorders
        
       Author : flashfaffe2
       Score  : 154 points
       Date   : 2022-07-25 07:20 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | ryukoposting wrote:
       | One time, someone told my girlfriend she should try Keto to help
       | with her Epilepsy. Maybe they were on to something, I guess.
        
         | memcg wrote:
         | Per this link.
         | 
         | https://charliefoundation.org/am-i-a-candidate/keto-for-epil...
         | 
         | "Ketogenic Therapies and brain surgery are the only known cures
         | for Epilepsy. Half of the people with epilepsy who try the diet
         | have a seizure reduction of at least 50%. Up to 25% become
         | completely seizure free. In the sections below, we explain how
         | Ketogenic Therapies compare to anti-epileptic medications, how
         | keto's mechanisms are thought to affect the body, and stories
         | from a few of the thousands of families who have had amazing
         | results by implementing keto for epilepsy."
        
         | fhrow4484 wrote:
         | Apparently it's helpful to more than epilepsy, from a study
         | this month: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-
         | diet/20220...
         | 
         | > Symptoms of depression and psychosis improved in all 28
         | patients who followed the diet for longer than two weeks, with
         | improvements becoming noticeable within three weeks or less.
         | 43% of patients achieved clinical remission, and 64% were
         | discharged from the hospital on less psychiatric medication.
         | 
         | It's amazing that results were seen in just 3 weeks
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | I mean no harm no foul, I too have heard mostly anecdotal
         | accounts of diet and various health conditions - migraines,
         | allergies, ADHD, etc.
         | 
         | There's plenty of science out there but it's still early.
        
         | gnarcoregrizz wrote:
         | Check out the LGIT (low glycemic index treatment), aka "the
         | south beach diet". It's a more relaxed low-carb diet (80g/day),
         | which has shown similar efficacy to keto for seizure control.
         | It makes it much easier to feel somewhat normal at restaurants
         | and the dinner table when out with people.
         | 
         | https://www.epilepsy.com/treatment/dietary-therapies/low-gly...
         | 
         | One interesting thing about these low-carb diet therapies is
         | that they can result in long-term seizure control even after
         | discontinuing the diet. They are worth trying imo. However,
         | I'll personally attest to the fact that they are not a silver
         | bullet.
        
         | digdugdirk wrote:
         | The Ketogenic diet is actually fully effective in many
         | patients. Interestingly, its more commonly used as a "last
         | resort" when patients don't respond to pharmaceutical
         | interventions instead of a first line of treatment.
         | 
         | https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/7156-ketoge...
        
           | lancesells wrote:
           | That's terrible to hear that doctors would try
           | pharmaceuticals before a relatively simple diet change.
        
             | dev_tty01 wrote:
             | I agree that on the surface, it sounds dreadful. The
             | problem is that many doctors have found through experience
             | that patient compliance with a daily pill is much better
             | than with dietary changes. If a doctor wants to actually
             | help a patient, the treatment that a patient will actually
             | do becomes the most effective by default.
             | 
             | Having said that, I do think that doctors need to be aware
             | of and make sure the alternatives are discussed with the
             | patient. The paternal MD attitude of just tell the patient
             | what they think the patient needs to hear should not be
             | tolerated. If I ever get that vibe from a doc I move on and
             | find someone who will respect me as a patient.
        
             | parineum wrote:
             | I suspect patients feel the same.
        
             | snarf21 wrote:
             | I think that happens because that is what _most_ patients
             | want. They don 't want to give up pizza and alcohol. Give
             | me a magic pill instead so I can do what I want.
        
             | vorpalhex wrote:
             | Keto is not a simple diet change. It is very difficult to
             | stick to and comes with a lot of prohibitions. Adherence is
             | low and side effects do happen.
        
               | aszantu wrote:
               | Keto worked for me only when I cut out carbs completely,
               | I eventually switched to zero carb because it's easier to
               | maintain. As long as I allowed myself anything carb, I'd
               | got on a binge-frenzy, even with dairy... willpower is a
               | terrible thing.
        
             | worker_person wrote:
             | I'm involved in many support forums.
             | 
             | A few patterns I've noticed.
             | 
             | The people who have been mostly managing their conditions
             | via diet without understanding whats happening. Basically
             | they eat healthy, and it mostly works.
             | 
             | People who love food / don't want to cook healthy and
             | refuse to acknowledge the possibility that's causing
             | problems.
             | 
             | People who say they eat healthy but really don't. (Salad
             | once a week) Or a variation, people who ate a salad, didn't
             | get better and claim diets don't work).
             | 
             | The ones who are at deaths door and are finally desperate
             | enough to try anything.
             | 
             | Actually following a strict diet like KETO / AIP. Paying
             | close attention to trigger foods, etc. These ones often can
             | reduce or eliminate medication.
             | 
             | Learning to be honest with yourself about food is one of
             | the major challenges. Giving up various food addictions can
             | be brutal.
        
           | gnarcoregrizz wrote:
           | It's a last resort because adults can't reliably stick to the
           | diet and doctors know it. People don't even stick to
           | medication very well. It's really only prescribed in kids
           | with severe forms of genetic epilepsy because it works well
           | for those conditions, and their parents control what they
           | eat. It's a lot easier to take a pill than to change your
           | entire lifestyle.
           | 
           | Unfortunately, keto doesn't always control seizures either.
           | Pills still work better than diet for some people.
        
       | david_l_lin wrote:
       | It's interesting that we've become so obsessed with the gut
       | microbiome even though stool only captures a tiny fraction of the
       | composition of the gut.
       | 
       | Similarly, the salivary oral microbiome has also been correlated
       | with mental disorders, cognitive health, is modulated by diet,
       | and plays a major role in systemic health. And saliva is
       | objectively easier to collect. Instead of jumping straight into
       | collecting poop, we should be collecting our spit instead!
       | 
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01922-0
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94498-6
        
         | jklinger410 wrote:
         | I have a chicken and egg issue with microbiome stuff. Does your
         | microbiome look different because you are suffering from an
         | issue, or does your microbiome looking different cause the
         | issue.
         | 
         | Kind of like when an auto-immune disorder is causing
         | inflammation. You can treat the inflammation, but you aren't
         | treating the real problem.
        
           | FollowingTheDao wrote:
           | Yes, I can assure you it is bidirectional, since my mental
           | stress certainly affected my gut.
        
           | david_l_lin wrote:
           | well, for the most part in healthcare we treat symptoms not
           | causes.
           | 
           | cavities caused by acid producing bacteria? drill and fill
           | 
           | gum disease caused by oral dysbiosis? bone and gum grafts
           | 
           | diabetes from autoimmunity? insulin
           | 
           | high cholesterol from... anything? statins
        
             | aaaaaaaaata wrote:
             | A great reminder that you are the only one truly held
             | responsible for "figuring out" your health.
        
       | flashfaffe2 wrote:
       | Role of diet and its effects on the gut microbiome in the
       | pathophysiology of mental disorder
        
       | hrdwdmrbl wrote:
       | What's the tl;dr? What does it say we should eat?
        
         | bjoli wrote:
         | I only skimmed the article, but many sections, with the glaring
         | exception being diet and epilepsy, mentioned a Mediterranean
         | style diet, and looking closer at the studies cited it seems
         | like the Mediterranean diet proposed by Low-Carb Satan Ancel
         | Keys.
         | 
         | But I didn't read it too closely. One of my favourite YouTubers
         | just released a video on the subject:
         | https://youtu.be/FleMtTEEYlc
        
           | hombre_fatal wrote:
           | I like that guy too. One of the few nutrition youtubers I can
           | find who seem open minded.
        
       | robg wrote:
       | I'm a neuroscientist and have struggled with my (mental) health
       | for 30 years. With the pandemic I realized how much foods affect
       | how I feel every day. Going more than 6 months without eating out
       | I became attuned to the differences of meals I prep and what goes
       | into them.
       | 
       | The best explanation I've heard is food is like explicit
       | instructions for how our bodies and brains perform through our
       | DNA. Gut health is the engine of the biological machine humming
       | or sputtering accordingly. The research is out there on the
       | differences between food types and impacts of processed foods.
       | The Pollan mantra still still sticks with me: Eat (whole) foods.
       | Not too much. Mostly plants. I've added: Sleep better. Move more.
       | Stress less. (To eat well.)
        
         | boplicity wrote:
         | It's not just the food that determines how our body reacts;
         | it's also the microbiome, which produces a wide array of
         | compounds that can enter our bloodstream, and possibly cross
         | the blood-brain barrier. The microbiome is an incredible
         | collection of microbes that is necessary for our health, and
         | yet mostly a mystery at this point. The foods we eat have a
         | direct impact on which microbes thrive, or don't thrive, in our
         | gut -- which is a siginificant part of how our diet affects our
         | gut health.
        
           | pstuart wrote:
           | Dr. Rhonda Patrick talks about diet resistant starch feeding
           | the gut itself. Potato starch is a cheap and easy way to
           | augment that need (YMMV).
        
             | boplicity wrote:
             | You microbiome is more akin to a forest than a farm. You
             | can't just plant potatoes (or whatever) and assume that it
             | will get balanced. Sometimes things like this do help, but
             | sometimes they don't. Fertilizer makes plants grow, but it
             | can have unintended consequences. (For example, runoff
             | leading to bacterial blooms in a watershed.) The gut is an
             | ecology, hence the difficulty of determining one-size-fits
             | all fixes to a complex ecosystem.
        
         | worker_person wrote:
         | Best thing I ever did for health was a 30 day elimination diet.
         | I felt much better, and could easily tell which foods bothered
         | me when I reintroduced them.
         | 
         | I would eat a roll and 20 minutes later I was feeling hot and
         | flushed and irritated. Just like I had been for years. A slice
         | of pizza is basically a day of feeling horrible.
        
           | adinb wrote:
           | Have you heard of the FODMAP diet? It can really help with
           | IBS. You start by eliminating all foods with FODMAPS[1] for
           | six weeks and then gradually reintroduce foods from each of
           | the FODMAP categories. It's recommended to have a
           | dietician/nutritionist help with the temporary diet. It was
           | pioneered by Monash University. [
           | https://www.monashfodmap.com ]
           | 
           | [1] the FODMAP acronym: Fermenatble
           | Oligo-,Di-,Monosaccharides And Polyols
        
             | FollowingTheDao wrote:
             | The FODMAP diet help me understand that my condition was
             | genetic.
        
             | Natsu wrote:
             | I've read about that, but it's really hard to find an
             | example diet and it's not like most of those things appear
             | on the nutrition labels.
             | 
             | Also they say not to avoid all of those long term, just
             | temporarily.
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | Deets on the diet?
           | 
           | Was this a self-directed or clinician (nutritionist / MD /
           | ...) programme?
           | 
           | I'm presuming this began with a minimum baseline to which you
           | added foods over time?
        
             | peytoncasper wrote:
             | I could be wrong, but I think OP meant, choose something to
             | eliminate and do it for 30 days. Then choose to introduce
             | it back in if you wish. This allows you to observe the
             | effect it has on you.
             | 
             | I did this with added sugars. I could definitely feel the
             | cravings to not only eat more as you added it back in but
             | also the baseline cravings to just have some amount of
             | sugar in your body. It is very eye opening.
             | 
             | You also become very aware of how much sugar is in
             | everything.
        
               | elmomle wrote:
               | To clarify, the thing one eliminates is typically a
               | molecule or a food group--the most common are probably
               | (in no order) added sugar, gluten, fried foods, processed
               | foods, dairy, and red meat. One can eliminate any or all
               | of those, typically for a month (gives your gut time to
               | change), and then, if you want to, experiment with adding
               | things back in.
               | 
               | A nice thing about the gut microbiome is that it's self-
               | reinforcing, both psychologically and gustatorily--as in,
               | once one's body realizes a food doesn't help, one tend to
               | both think "why would I make myself feel like that?", and
               | to find the experience of eating/drinking it less
               | pleasurable, alien, or even disgusting.
        
               | browningstreet wrote:
               | An elimination diet is a protocol where you start with a
               | baseline of "safest" foods and exclude everything for a
               | while, and then.. in an orderly fashion, start to re-
               | introduce foods while noting how you respond or change in
               | light of those additions. It's a protocol, one you can
               | get from a nutritionist or dietician or by searching
               | online. And the food lists can be adapted to people with
               | varying eating modalities.
        
             | worker_person wrote:
             | plain chicken. broccoli and sweet potatoes. All plain. No
             | spices, no oils. I wanted a baseline. Water or green tea
             | only.
             | 
             | This was self directed. I was in horrific agony every
             | moment of every day, stuck in bed 20 hours a day.
             | 
             | I slowly added things back in, most things caused issues.
             | Eventually I realized I was just re-inventing the AIP diet.
             | 
             | Few months later I was out kayaking every weekend.
        
               | chasebank wrote:
               | I'll add my anecdote. Nightshade vegetables, in
               | particular the potato, wreak havoc on my body. Took me
               | years to figure out. I didn't even know what a nightshade
               | was. Every few months I'll start to question my sanity
               | and I'm sure potatoes won't bother me. Without fail,
               | every time, rashes, pain, insomnia, deep depressive
               | thoughts, all within 8 hours of consuming potatoes. It's
               | truly crazy. I still have a hard time believing it. Funny
               | enough, I grew up in Idaho, can't eat potatoes. Sweet
               | potatoes it is!
        
               | surfpel wrote:
               | > I was in horrific agony every moment of every day,
               | stuck in bed 20 hours a day
               | 
               | Surely not as a result of the diet?
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | If something you're eating is making you sick, then not
               | eating that thing will make a tremendous difference in
               | your health and quality of life.
               | 
               | "If you haven't got your health, you haven't got
               | anything."
               | 
               | -- Tyrone Rugen
        
               | swores wrote:
               | That is indeed quite obvious, but parent comment was
               | asking about a specific person's situation, not whether
               | food is possible or making somebody sick generally or
               | whether it's bad to be sick.
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | I'm not OP.
               | 
               | But I've found myself occasionally faced with food-
               | related unpleasantness, and it's remarkably debilitating.
               | 
               | YMMV
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | Thanks.
               | 
               | Rice is often mentioned as another low-inflammation /
               | -irritation food. Though I've heard through a friend of
               | someone with a rice allergy --- by an east-Asian, to
               | boot!
               | 
               | I'd look at minimising complexity whilst achieving
               | nutritional sufficiency (macros, vitamins, essential
               | oils) and take it from there, I suppose.
        
             | getcrunk wrote:
             | Maybe he meant carnivore. U start only with meat, then add
             | stuff back in slowly.
        
             | SkyPuncher wrote:
             | I'm doing something similar, but I'm using meal
             | replacements. Huel is my choice, but there are a lot of
             | others that seem just as good. I basically switched to Huel
             | only for 2 weeks. Then started re-introducing other foods
             | to see how I felt.
             | 
             | It became very obvious, very quickly that a few foods
             | (mostly dairy) were causing me major issues.
        
         | carapace wrote:
         | I'm old enough to remember when this sort of thing was "woo-
         | woo", so it's good to see it getting a grounding in solid
         | scientific investigation. "Let your food be your medicine." and
         | all that, eh?
         | 
         | Historically our microbiome and the external environment must
         | have been in a kind of dialog: available food would be a pretty
         | direct function of the local ecosystem, and our feces, which
         | are something like 80% microorganisms, would of course be
         | integrated back into the soil. (It's not really that
         | surprising, from this POV, that our bellies would have brains.)
        
         | FollowingTheDao wrote:
         | Hi neuroscientis, maybe you should look into the genetics of
         | you own, and others, gut metabolism. I did and it change my
         | life. (Disabled with Scizoaffective Bipolar Disorder and
         | Ankylosing Spondylitis).
         | 
         | I found out I am a FUT2 non-secretor through 23andMe, unusual
         | for a European Caucasian. So basically I cannot fight of gut
         | microbes like you heart farmer folk.
         | 
         | Secretor Genotype (FUT2 gene) Is Strongly Associated with the
         | Composition of Bifidobacteria in the Human Intestine
         | 
         | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
         | 
         | Human genetic variation and the gut microbiome in disease
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg.2017.63
         | 
         | Since FUT2 releases fucose (Not fructose) I decided to see what
         | foods contained fucose and try eating those. Turned out it is
         | very high in seaweed and mushrooms, which is interesting
         | because I have Sami heritage. Also the spuds that changes my
         | gut microbiome were important as well, this meant reducing my
         | short chain PUFAs as low as possible because of my FADS1 and
         | FADS2 genetics.
         | 
         | Eating those regularly turned my IBD into IBNormal and it
         | helped my brain and inflammation as well.
         | 
         | So "Eat (whole) foods. Not too much. Mostly plants" is quite
         | wrong for me, genetically. In fact, when I was a (good) vegan
         | and vegetarian my HDL was 30 with hyperlipidemia! Eating kind
         | of keto with only seafood pushed my Hal up to 55.
         | 
         | As a neuroscientist you should know that Mood Disorders are
         | highly polygenic so there is no same cause and therefore no
         | same cure for anyone.
         | 
         | So can you please start looking into personalized medicine so
         | people like me do not have to live in constant hell? Thanks.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | > Since FUT2 releases fuctose (Not fructose)
           | 
           | Fuctose has no wikipedia page. Could you provide some
           | sources?
           | 
           | > I found out I am a FUT2 non-secretor through 23andMe,
           | unusual for a European Caucasian.
           | 
           | Wikipedia says:
           | 
           | > Approximately 20% of Caucasians are non-secretors due to
           | the G428A (rs601338) and C571T (rs492602?) nonsense mutations
           | in FUT2
           | 
           | 20% doesn't seem extremely unusual.
        
             | PlatinumHarp wrote:
             | I think it's a typo, it should be Fucose not Fuctose.
        
             | FollowingTheDao wrote:
             | Yes, I fixed the spell check from fructose to fuctose, but
             | not all the way to fucose.
             | 
             | 20%, uncommon, unusual, whatever. It is not rare but it is
             | not usual.
             | 
             | Still 20% of the people might be eating a diet that is
             | wrong for them. But I suppose you think this does not
             | matter? I mean are you denying the science behind this? Are
             | you denying it helped me?
        
               | pieter_mj wrote:
               | Fuctose yourself! Kidding of course. I think there's a
               | lot of mental health to gain by following a personalized
               | diet taking into account your own body's "specifications"
               | as it were.
               | 
               | I'm guessing current western high carb/low nutritional
               | value diet is detrimental to mental health.
        
               | amelius wrote:
               | I was just interested and checking facts, not trying to
               | be judgemental. Thanks for the correction.
        
               | FollowingTheDao wrote:
               | As you can understand and see I am on a razors edge when
               | it comes to talking about this stuff, and even more so
               | with this in the medical field. It was really the "20% is
               | not unusual" part that skewered me in the brain because
               | before I posted this no one here probably heard of this
               | gene and its strong effect on the microbiome and diet.
               | 
               | And now I just want to add, for your interest, that Mood
               | Disorders are not fundamentally neurological, I am sorry
               | to say, but in fact they are immune disorders which
               | affect neurology. You would do the mentally ill a huge
               | favor by sending your patients to rheumatology for care.
               | 
               | It has been 50 years since my mother was diagnose with
               | Bipolar Disorder and here I am now, with the same issues,
               | and they are pretty much prescribing the same meds and
               | looking at it in the same way. So whenever I meet a
               | neurologist I have to express my frustration because you
               | need to think about mood disorders in a radically new way
               | if something is to change and being nice did not change
               | anything. And now, when I find things out that help me I
               | get no help from my doctors, just a "glad that worked for
               | you" and the cold shoulder when I ask for more testing.
        
               | mandmandam wrote:
               | > Mood Disorders are not fundamentally neurological, I am
               | sorry to say, but in fact they are immune disorders which
               | affect neurology
               | 
               | This is interesting to me, thank you. The gut-brain link
               | is fascinating.
               | 
               | Have you read "The Body Keeps the Score"? There are some
               | absolutely shocking stats in that book about the
               | correlation between early childhood trauma and mood
               | disorders. You may find the stuff about EMDR and
               | reconnecting with the body interesting. That said, BPD is
               | often an outlier; as in, it doesn't respond the same as
               | most others.
               | 
               | ... I'm not an expert. But, I think the author of that
               | book would agree with you on the difficulty of presenting
               | new information to doctors/neurologists/psychiatrists. It
               | seems to require a lot of resilience.
        
               | FollowingTheDao wrote:
               | Your are welcome.
               | 
               | Yes, I have read Mate's book. I assure you my fcked up
               | childhood was one part of the problem but my genetic risk
               | combined with a "farmer's diet" is a greater factor for
               | me, even more so in relation to my cardiovascular and
               | autoimmune health.
               | 
               | I do have a feeling that genetics is even more important
               | than trauma and that the correlation between the two is
               | found because of the genetics.
        
               | limpbizkitfan wrote:
               | There are very many theories regarding what is and isn't
               | a contributing mechanism to mental health. Nutrition is
               | one thing, when I ate less I lost weight and had less
               | fatigue and depression. But that happened in concert with
               | treatment aligned with the serotonin/norepinephrine
               | signaling theory of depression, and it worked for me, as
               | it has very many others in regular drug studies.
               | 
               | I don't think it's a good idea to dismiss medicine right
               | away but it was an essential 15% to the 85% of my work
               | putting in place methods and giving myself a chance to
               | change.
        
               | FollowingTheDao wrote:
               | > There are very many theories regarding what is and
               | isn't a contributing mechanism to mental health
               | 
               | That was pretty much the whole point of my comment. Why
               | are there many theories? Because their are are many
               | causes. Until we start looking at every one individually
               | no one will get well.
               | 
               | And I am in no way dismissing medicine, I only want
               | doctors to start practicing it again.
        
               | bckr wrote:
               | > But I suppose you think this does not matter
               | 
               | That's an ungenerous interpretation when otherwise the GP
               | demonstrated curiosity about your provided information.
               | It's easily read as "this may be important to more people
               | than you implied".
        
               | FollowingTheDao wrote:
               | The statement "20% doesn't seem extremely unusual" is a
               | total write off of those 20% of people. You see, he is
               | looking for a single case of disorder and there is not
               | one. This is frustrating and ignores the huge genetic
               | diversity in humanity.
               | 
               | As someone with Inuit heritage this is harmful to me. For
               | 80% of people a vegetarian diet will be helpful. But for
               | 20% it is probably not helpful. But all you will read in
               | the news is how a vegetarian diet is the only diet to
               | cure heart disease, etc...
               | 
               | Inulin is in every food now because it is "healthy". Do
               | you know what inulin does to my gut? But this is one of
               | those "healthy" foods.
        
         | loceng wrote:
         | If you haven't yet it's a good idea to do a microbiome stool
         | test kit to see if there is any overgrowth of bad bacteria or
         | yeast in your GI tract, as well an Igg food sensitivity
         | test/food panel for 200+ foods to see if there are any common
         | foods you're regularly or irregularly eating that may be
         | causing inflammation, irritating your GI tract.
         | 
         | Also important to note, many plants have toxins in them to
         | prevent animals eating them, and that most research studies on
         | red meat are greatly flawed.
        
           | rewgs wrote:
           | IgG tests are junk and meaningless.
        
             | rewgs wrote:
             | Uh, why exactly am I being downvoted for this? ^
             | 
             | IgG tests are objectively bad science, used to scam people
             | into thinking they have allergies when they don't. IgG will
             | basically just give you a list of what foods you've eaten
             | lately. They are completely and utterly useless.
             | 
             | IgE tests are what matter. I have dozens of food allergies
             | and unfortunately have had to learn more about allergies
             | and the immune system than I ever imagined. I know what I'm
             | talking about here.
        
           | tpush wrote:
           | 1) IgG food tests are not scientifically validated.
           | 
           | 2) GI irritation is separate from inflammation, and many
           | common food stuffs that may be causing irritation generally
           | decrease inflammation.
           | 
           | 3) Those "plant toxins" are either deactivated by processing
           | (cooking etc.) or are in such low quantities that there's no
           | negative effect, and most of the time even a slightly
           | positive one.
           | 
           | 4) "Most research studies" on red meat are not flawed.
           | 
           | Edit: Formatting.
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | I do believe cooking food neutralizes most of those toxins.
           | 
           | Anyway, I do believe (citation needed) that food sensitivity
           | is also correlated to gut biome, and that some sensitivities
           | can be overcome with dietary and/or gut biome changes.
        
             | adrian_b wrote:
             | While the toxins that are proteins are usually inactivated
             | by cooking, some of the other substances require additional
             | steps, which were always used in traditional cooking, but
             | not all modern cooks are aware of them.
             | 
             | For example, all the kinds of seeds, including all kinds of
             | dry legumes and all kinds of nuts, require soaking in water
             | for many hours and the water must be dumped and they must
             | be washed before cooking, in order to remove as much of the
             | phytic acid as possible.
             | 
             | The soaking in water is much more efficient if the water is
             | acidulated, e.g. with lemon juice or with vinegar.
             | 
             | Another example is with the vegetables rich in oxalic acid,
             | e.g. spinach, which must be boiled in several stages. After
             | each stage, the boiling water must be dumped and replaced
             | by fresh water, in order to remove as much of the oxalic
             | acid as possible.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | > _For example, all the kinds of seeds, including all
               | kinds of dry legumes and all kinds of nuts, require
               | soaking in water for many hours and the water must be
               | dumped and they must be washed before cooking, in order
               | to remove as much of the phytic acid as possible._
               | 
               | Or you can just... not do any of that. Eat raw almonds
               | and shit out phytic acid. What's the problem?
        
           | groestl wrote:
           | Can you provide a little more insight/some links on the last
           | paragraph?
        
           | geewee wrote:
           | > and that most research studies on red meat are greatly
           | flawed.
           | 
           | Care to elaborate on this? Preferably with sources.
        
             | lambdaba wrote:
             | You might be interested in this document from Credit
             | Suisse: https://research-doc.credit-
             | suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&...
             | 
             | There are more than 450 references to saturated fat in the
             | document, but I found this phrase early on:
             | 
             | > Our view is that saturated fats intake is at worst
             | neutral for CVD risks and the current 10% upper limit
             | should be lifted.
             | 
             | Apologies if there was some other property of red meat that
             | you had in mind, although I've been convinced from people
             | commenting studies purportedly linking red meat and say,
             | colon cancer, are just based on poor quality
             | epidemiological data. And, while there was some sort of
             | intuitive sense in which one could imagine the saturated
             | fat eaten with meat/dairy products would mechanically clog
             | arteries, I don't see anything like this with red meat. In
             | fact, we are made of it, why would eating it have a
             | deleterious effect? To the contrary, it seems that
             | abstaining from meat often quite quickly causes iron
             | deficiency/disregulation, B12 deficiency and so on.
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | I don't have any sources for you, but a lot of people have
             | been revisiting saturated fat and cholesterol, and it
             | appears that they probably aren't as bad for you as we once
             | thought.
        
               | adrian_b wrote:
               | While moderate amounts of saturated fats are not bad,
               | there is no doubt that it is recommended that in the
               | eaten fat the most abundant fatty acid must be oleic acid
               | (i.e. the fat must contain mostly MUFA, mono-unsaturated
               | fatty acids).
               | 
               | The reason is simply that oleic acid is the most abundant
               | fatty acid in human fat. When the ingested fat consists
               | mostly of oleic acid, it can be used as such, while when
               | the ingested fat contains either mostly saturated fats,
               | like many animal fats or mostly poly-unsaturated fatty
               | acids, e.g. linoleic acid, like most cheap vegetable
               | oils, the ingested fatty acids must be converted by the
               | liver into the fatty acids preferred inside the human
               | body, so that is extra work for the liver and the liver
               | becomes less efficient at old ages. If the liver does not
               | succeed to convert all the ingested fatty acids that
               | should have been converted, than the composition of the
               | fat used for various purposes in the body may be
               | suboptimal.
               | 
               | Examples of foods with optimal fatty acid composition are
               | olive oil, high-oleic sunflower oil (not classic
               | sunflower oil, which contains mostly linoleic acid),
               | hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, peanuts.
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | What test do you recommend and why?
           | 
           | Last time I googled these tests I got so many results it
           | seems like a small bullshit industry.
           | 
           | Gut bacteria is obviously important but I'm not sure the
           | results of these tests are useful.
        
             | robg wrote:
             | https://www.nowleap.com/the-patented-mediator-release-test/
             | 
             | Importantly, should be ordered by a nutritionist and
             | requires a blood draw. It's got some challenges but overall
             | helped me when paired with a restricted diet. Easy to
             | relapse though, 2-3 months versus a lifetime of eating
             | behaviors.
        
           | whyenot wrote:
           | > many plants have toxins in them to prevent animals eating
           | them
           | 
           | Almost all of the plants humans eat have been domesticated
           | and bred to no longer produce these compounds in the parts
           | that we eat. For other plant parts, such as fruit, being full
           | of sugar and tasty is an adaptation because it helps with
           | dispersing the plant's seeds. If this is something that
           | interests you I recommend reading 'With Bitter Herbs they
           | shall eat it: Chemical ecology and the origins of human diet
           | and medicine.' by Timothy Johns. It was published 30 years
           | ago and is essentially his PhD dissertation but quite
           | readable and still one of the best resources on this subject.
        
           | robg wrote:
           | Did the food sensitivity test (MRT) and helped a bit but also
           | learned how immune responses can become associated with foods
           | we eat a lot. Overall gut health and inflammation is so
           | obvious, the engine strains with bad fuel, but very difficult
           | to live it when pasta and pizza and burgers are staples.
           | 
           | Why I think Pollan's mantra is great, he's not absolutist
           | about any meat. Just mix and match, which we would in nature.
           | It's really hard to catch a consistent meat source.
        
           | robg wrote:
           | Sugar and Candida was really eye opening - it's the fungal
           | overgrowth driving my addiction to sweet stuff.
        
           | Wyoming23 wrote:
           | > Igg food sensitivity test/food panel for 200+ foods
           | 
           | Last I looked into this, the science didn't really support
           | this interpretation and in fact may have been directionally
           | opposite.
           | 
           | Iirc in layman's terms, a "positive" result in that test
           | didn't really mean "immune response" it just meant your body
           | had the corresponding chemical to break down the food. What
           | you had eaten in the past week could alter the results of the
           | test and the results weren't predictive of foods that would
           | cause digestive issues.
        
       | polskibus wrote:
       | How does this study relate to fairly recent topic of lack of
       | evidence that low serotonine levels causes depression ? Should
       | the diet metaanalysis be redone after that study ?
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32160703
        
       | pygy_ wrote:
       | In the first table the "eating disorders" entry makes references
       | to "Kleinman et al. 2015" and to "Morita et al. 2015". Neither
       | can be found in the bibiography. I couldn't find a paper by some
       | Kleinman on the topic between 2014 and 2016 (https://scholar.goog
       | le.com/scholar?start=0&q=author:kleinman...). Morita wrote this (
       | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...).
       | 
       | Neither the linked article nor Morita's mention Serguei
       | Fetissov's pioneering work on the topic though, which is
       | disappointing, given that he and his colleagues have long
       | documented the link between _E. Coli_ , the immune system and
       | eating disorders.
       | 
       | The gist is that _E. Coli_ produces a protein (CLBP) that mimics
       | a feeding-related hormone (IIRC melanocortin). That protein ends
       | up in the blood stream and can bind the corresponding receptors.
       | It can also generate an immune response, and these antibodies are
       | cross-reactive, causing autoimmunity and complicating the story.
        
         | bluechair wrote:
         | Do you have any links to his work?
        
           | pygy_ wrote:
           | Plucking from Google scholar you can check
           | 
           | this https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.222658699
           | 
           | and this https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/am-
           | pdf/10.1002/eat.22531
           | 
           | among many others...
           | 
           | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=7%2C39&q=ser.
           | ..
           | 
           | A key point is that the same anomalies are seen in anorexia,
           | binge eating and bulimia.
        
       | jb1991 wrote:
       | tldr:
       | 
       | > to date there is insufficient evidence from mechanistic human
       | studies to make conclusions about causality between a specific
       | diet and microbially mediated brain function.
        
         | h0l0cube wrote:
         | A line from the abstract is not a fair summary of this article
        
         | bckr wrote:
         | That's because there's not a straight line between correlation
         | and causation. The controlled experiments haven't been done
         | yet. But that's not all there is to science.
        
       | crikeyjoe wrote:
        
       | liberia wrote:
       | Anyone here drink kefir yogurt? I have kefir grains which I
       | ferment in milk and get a weekly yield of yogurt that I drink out
       | of a bowl after straining the yogurt. It's packed with
       | probiotics, and helps with my mood. It's an all round useful
       | elixir to make.
        
         | zucked wrote:
         | I add Kefir to a lot of dishes (both cooked and uncooked) that
         | call for some dairy component. I actually prefer it to milk in
         | things like pancakes, even though cooking it must kill
         | some/many/all of the probiotics. I was making my own, but I was
         | finding the process a bit more involved than I wanted to deal
         | with, so I just recently started buying pre-made kefir.
         | 
         | I can't say that I've experienced a world-altering impact to my
         | life (wow, no more acne and I've lost 22lbs!) but I do think
         | I've been able to eat dairy products (cheese and yogurt) with
         | far less upset stomach than before. Careful with introducing
         | Kefir if you're looking to try it out - start small. I was
         | adding a tablespoon to my dishes and it made me gassy as heck
         | for the first couple of days.
        
         | aszantu wrote:
         | if i drink a certain brand of kefir before bed i get space
         | dreams 2 out of 3 times, in germany it's called muller milch
         | kefir, good stuff xD
         | 
         | can't do it too often since I don't to well with the sugar
         | content of dairy but it's fun!
         | 
         | Warped in a space battle once, barely missed some shooting
         | turret and deep dove into a beforehand invisible sun wich was
         | made of blue water filled cells, good thing, dreams don't have
         | to make sense!
        
           | KingFelix wrote:
           | Thats pretty cool, I wonder what causes it? I wonder if you
           | could do a double blind, have someone fill a cup of muller
           | milch kefir, and another brand for a few nights (secretly
           | your assistant has only used the off brand, do you still get
           | space dreams?)
        
         | giraffe_lady wrote:
         | A few years ago I started making and eating a lot of fermented
         | foods for purely gastronomic reasons, including kefir. I
         | haven't really noticed any obvious changes.
         | 
         | I've been on antibiotics twice in this time and do feel like I
         | get my appetite back more quickly after stopping them now. An
         | antibiotic course used to mean weeks or months of poor
         | appetite, nausea and indigestion now it's like 10 days. But
         | that could be coincidence or something else entirely, who
         | knows.
        
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