161–170 of 297 posts
Gut microbiome researcher here - not involved in this study but happy to answer questions or dig in with anyone interested!
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Two main things: 1. Genetically modified (GMO) foods can cause non-food compounds to get synthesized in the food that our bodies have never seen before, which can trigger autoimmune issues. I consider this the lower risk. 2. GMO foods are designed specifically to allow more use of pesticides and herbicides. These get incorporated into the food and can stay around after washing, especially in processed food. Pesticide…
My impression is quite the opposite - GMO insect-resistant plants enable using much less pesticides (the savings from reduced frequency and quantity of pesticides being the economic reason for choosing such crops) than non-modified equivalents.
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> I didn't really believe any of this in 2018, and my meal plan then consisted entirely of everything that I can't eat today. I suspect you had the same degree of confidence in your understanding of these issue then as you do now. It's interesting that you can reflect on your overconfidence in the past, but don't seem to express any skepticism regarding your current beliefs surrounding nutrition. By the way, I'm not…
There's an asymmetry in the risks associated with choosing either a) to restrict or b) not to restrict the set of foods you eat. Overconfidence in (b) carries more risk than overconfidence in (a). The set of chemicals that are toxic is much larger (as in >>>) than the set of chemicals that are necessary for sustaining life.
Gut microbiome researcher here - not involved in this study but happy to answer questions or dig in with anyone interested!
'trust your gut'
'I have a gut feeling'
'I hate his guts'
'my gut reaction'.
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I think it's really hard - we don't know what a healthy state of the microbiome is. There is likely a lot of individuality, what is healthy for me is maybe not healthy for you. This probably has to do with early life immune system development and what we were exposed to as kids. At a high level we know that diversity of microbial species in the gut (but for instance, not in the vagina) is linked to better overall hea…
Wonder what evolutionary mechanisms made us (in general) enjoy food that's bad for us a lot more than the one that's good.
There was a lot of work on microbiome and cancer immunotherapy... the latest study in the field published in the most prestigious journal there is [1] seemed to show that fibre intake was more important than any specific microbe. In fact they found that eating more fibre and taking probiotics resulted in worse outcomes than just eating more fibre alone. This was recapitulated in a mouse model: > Together, these data…
But we don’t think it’s genetic because we see diverticulitis in people from these parts of the world 10 years after moving to the West. It’s thought that these places consume more fiber by virtue of eating more roughage.
Fiber + hydration is so important. You need to keep the waste moving. If it’s slow and hard on the gut lining you end up sounding these tissues opening them to disease.
I tell my cranky kids this all the time. Or, hopefully, before they get cranky, my kids don't like eating at appropriate times, it's like they're missing the hunger gene or something.
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To put the question back what benefit does it provide aside from cost?
As just one example, if you live in an area where it is difficult to get dietary Vitamin A, you might enjoy the benefits of not going blind due to Vitamin A deficiency by eating Golden Rice[0]. Have you ever eaten a SweeTango apple? It is one of dozens of varieties that have been created in the last hundred years using genetic engineering via cross breeding[1]. Do you know why commercial tomatoes are so bland? Geneti…
Genetic engineering goes way beyond the possibility space of selective breeding, which we have thousands of years of experience with.
When it comes to diet, science is difficult enough as it is. Introducing such novelties only makes it harder.