Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

cowboy.vc

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 134 posts

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#71

Post by brainzap »

rofo1 wrote: post #17

I've had my share of sleep problems in the past. Fixed it by reading "Why We Sleep" and "Circadian Code" and borrowing a lot of ideas and suggestions there. I immediately gave up coffee, at first, a long with a bunch of other things (details at [0]). Anyway, recently I started experimenting with coffee again and it turns out it didn't have any impact on my sleep, whatsoever. I started drinking coffee again (albeit, l…

The problem I see with all these Anecdotes is, that when a person starts to take care of their body like you did, they attack multiple health problems at once: improving sleep, reducing coffee, eating more greens, a little bit more workout. So it is more the sum than a single thing.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#72

Post by JanSt »

spraak wrote: post #69
JanSt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? LDL can be a marker of bad health, but is not so by any means in all cases. Relevant study: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010401

That study is problematic: https://www.cebm.net/2016/06/cebm-response-lack-association-... And just one? Lots of studies showing the opposite.

I'm not here to dig up all studies showing those results. Here is (probably the best) one. The MCE was orignally designed to show the opposite:

https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#73

Post by wiennat »

_up wrote: post #52
mapcars wrote: post #46

>Foods to Avoid >Fruit: All fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries >Foods to Eat >Meat: Red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken and turkey Thank you but no, whoever made this diet doesn't know much about healthy food.

You won't find any centenarians that eat vegan. India is one of the countries with the highest diabetes numbers and vegan. Japan, on the other hand, has the most centenarian and they eat basically unprocessed food and low carb.

Japanese food has pretty high carb but they are mostly unprocessed.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#74

Post by saiya-jin »

_up wrote: post #52
mapcars wrote: post #46

>Foods to Avoid >Fruit: All fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries >Foods to Eat >Meat: Red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken and turkey Thank you but no, whoever made this diet doesn't know much about healthy food.

You won't find any centenarians that eat vegan. India is one of the countries with the highest diabetes numbers and vegan. Japan, on the other hand, has the most centenarian and they eat basically unprocessed food and low carb.

Correlation != causation. India is mostly vegetarian, not vegan - people eat diary products like paneer, ghee and yoghurt en masse. Meat foods are generally not that great - chicken with tons of bones, very chewy mutton, fish with tons of thin bones. I became +-vegetarian for few months when I backpacked there.

Their diet is generally not that good though - tons of carbs, little physical activity unless in 'blue collar' job. Older folks are almost always overweight. Maybe genes also don't help, not sure there.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#75

Post by Spearchucker »

peteretep wrote: post #39

If there's anything I'm getting from these comments is that everyone seems to have all sorts of different reactions, and we should all be much more aggressive about randomly experimenting with different diets

Clearly. And surprised at how many different types of food seem to affect so many adversely. I'm soooo lucky in that I've been able to eat anything and drink anything all my life without having sleep or any other problems (48 now, weigh 68kg, sleep like a champ, eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm thirsty).

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#76

Post by glastra »

semerda wrote: post #41

So much keto talk here yet no one mentions blood markers or LDL (bad cholesterol). What ever happened to good'ol'data approach? It's pretty obvious that altering ones diet can have profound effects. But a scientific approach to diet is a far safer approach. Ever tried to lower your bad cholesterol? So a group of friends who are data obsessed tried keto after another group of friends raved on about it like it was a si…

The "good'ol'data" approach is useless when the data themselves are useless from the get go.

LDL cholesterol is not a predictor, indicator or otherwise relevant measure with regards to disease, at all. If anything, HDL/trig ratio might be.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#77

Post by Aromasin »

peteretep wrote: post #33
Aromasin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found with me that, after trying keto for ages and loving how I felt but hating the diet itself, I managed to pin point the issue down to grains. Any form of grain, be it rice, wheat, barley, oats etc, all seemed to mess me up big style. I'n now on a diet of mostly fruit, nuts, beans, seeds and tubers and I'm better than I was on keto on almost every measurable factor. I think cutting out the carbs initially imp…

It's a shame there's so much pseudo-science around food intolerances, as I'd basically dismissed out of hand that I might be intolerant to some foods. As part of a separate diet, it's become clear to me that bread caused the life-long indigestion I've suffered, and that eggs were causing my skin to be bad, neither of which were links I'd made before. Also currently on a diet that isn't keto -- I'm eating a lot of veg…

I advise all my friends to do a "one food and work up" diet. I had massive problems with sleep, my skin, my bowel movements, general fatigue, long-onset DOMS after working out - the list goes on. These are completely gone now I pin-pointed the issue. I cut back everything, and added things one ingredient at a time. I started with only root veg, then added legumes, then brassicaceae veg (kale, cauliflower, broccoli etc.) That covered all my nutritional needs bar B12, which I supplement. From there, I've slowly added one more food every couple of week.

My only guess is that I have a histamine response to some kind of compound found in grains and certain types of spices. The body is a strange machination. Honestly, doing the reduction diet was the best thing I've ever done. If you could make a medication that brought me from how I felt 3 years ago to where I am now, you'd be worth more than Bezos.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#78

Post by JanSt »

spraak wrote: post #69
JanSt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? LDL can be a marker of bad health, but is not so by any means in all cases. Relevant study: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010401

That study is problematic: https://www.cebm.net/2016/06/cebm-response-lack-association-... And just one? Lots of studies showing the opposite.

Btw, it's not "just one" study, but a meta study. I guess you understand the difference?

Please link the studies showing the opposite results.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#79

Post by Aromasin »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #13
Aromasin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found with me that, after trying keto for ages and loving how I felt but hating the diet itself, I managed to pin point the issue down to grains. Any form of grain, be it rice, wheat, barley, oats etc, all seemed to mess me up big style. I'n now on a diet of mostly fruit, nuts, beans, seeds and tubers and I'm better than I was on keto on almost every measurable factor. I think cutting out the carbs initially imp…

Maybe it is glycemic load? I completely agree, but I get hit hard by sugars, bread, mashed potatoes and cheap fries (really good fries I justify).

I don't think it's that, as I'll go ham on like 2000 calories of potatoes and beans after working out and feel great. My thoughts are that it must be a histamine response to some compound found in grains and some spices.

Re: Turning the Puzzle Sideways: Sleep, Diet and the Brain-Gut Connection

#80

Post by fredsir »

JanSt wrote: post #48
semerda wrote: post #41

So much keto talk here yet no one mentions blood markers or LDL (bad cholesterol). What ever happened to good'ol'data approach? It's pretty obvious that altering ones diet can have profound effects. But a scientific approach to diet is a far safer approach. Ever tried to lower your bad cholesterol? So a group of friends who are data obsessed tried keto after another group of friends raved on about it like it was a si…

If you want to lower your LDL I'll advice you to eat nothing but white bread with slices of highly processed meat for a week. Will lower your HDL and increase Trigs too, but if LDL is your primary concern: Go for it. Here is the thing: it's not as easy as LDL = BAD. For older people higher LDL is actually protective, for women there seems to be nearly no effect whatsoever. Don't be fooled by simple answers.

> For older people higher LDL is actually protective

Their bodies are decaying, and/or (mostly and) is in a state of sickness, and can't saturate its needs properly because of this, so a higher level of LDL can be indicative of them eating enough to counter their bodies increasing inabilities, or not being as sick, and so forth.

It's a correlation, not a causation.

Post reply on HN