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.)
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.
[1] the FODMAP acronym: Fermenatble Oligo-,Di-,Monosaccharides And Polyols
Also they say not to avoid all of those long term, just temporarily.
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?
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.
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.
It became very obvious, very quickly that a few foods (mostly dairy) were causing me major issues.
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.)
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Care to elaborate on this? Preferably with sources.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Kind of like when an auto-immune disorder is causing inflammation. You can treat the inflammation, but you aren't treating the real problem.
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
I recently had mouth surgery where they had to open up the lower part to access the jaw bones. From what I understand, they sterilize your mouth pretty well beforehand. I had to rinse my mouth out with a foul tasting mouthwash and woke up with strange tastes and dark products around my lips. Since then, I've felt like crap. At first I thought it was the surgery itself. Then a long effect of the anesthesia. Except that it did not go away.
Anyway, I recently read a lot about probiotics and decided to try L. reuteri orally.
The result is so instantaneous that I was scared it might be psychosomatic from a placebo. But if it is indeed a placebo, it is the strongest I have experienced, so I doubt it.
My mouth went from always dry and smelly to well hydrated in one day. After 5 days, my mood completely changed, including the quality of my sleep.
I don't know if I was depressed per se, I had not consulted anyone. However, I had a heavy weight on my shoulders that is now gone.
Since that experience, I have added L. reuteri pills made for gut health to my diet. I am now considering making my own probiotic yogurts and as a family we have started to experiment with fermented sauces and pickled vegetables.
There is something very important about probiotics that is almost overlooked. I think we should all pay much more attention to it.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/7156-ketoge...
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.
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.
Unfortunately, keto doesn't always control seizures either. Pills still work better than diet for some people.
> 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
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.
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."
There's plenty of science out there but it's still early.
But I didn't read it too closely. One of my favourite YouTubers just released a video on the subject: https://youtu.be/FleMtTEEYlc
Regardless of what you think of Wakefield, and the disservice he (and/or Brian Deer) did with respect to autism and vaccines, an even bigger tragedy to me is that nobody dared to investigate the BGM axis for decades now, for fear of association.
It's good to see it back on the list of acceptable research agendas. Perhaps finally the healing can begin.
> to date there is insufficient evidence from mechanistic human studies to make conclusions about causality between a specific diet and microbially mediated brain function.
