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

The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 218 posts

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#61

Post by hombre_fatal »

adriand wrote: post #59
hombre_fatal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minimize saturated fat (by replacing it with unsaturated fat). Get enough protein. Eat healthy carbs*. * On HN and other social media, "carbs" is a euphemism for sugar and cake rather than beans and vegetables, so people will talk about how carbs made them fat when you know they're not talking about slamming back-to-back cans of garbanzos. And don't take any nutrition advice seriously that doesn't break fat apart int…

I think "healthy carbs" might be a bit too vague. There are simple and complex carbohydrates, and the latter can be further broken down between starchy carbohydrates like grains and fibrous carbohydrates like vegetables. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about any of these types of carbohydrates: simple carbs (e.g. fructose) are in fruit, complex carbs in whole grains, etc. I think it is probably more helpful to…

I don't think it's vague considering my second paragraph. Eat whole foods. Avoid the Coca-Cola and cake and packaged goods that most people are referring to when they demonize carbs.

Fruit and vegetables, go ahead. I just lightly pan fried some potato cubes and tossed in random veg for breakfast.

I don't want to do a whole diet breakdown every time I scrawl something about nutrition on HN. But more HNers should subscribe to evidence-based reporters on the topic like Simon Hill and Gil Carvalho rather than evidence deniers like most of the low-carb space and quacks like Eric Berg.

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#62

Post by shafyy »

blakesterz wrote: post #13

"After the diet change, we observed significant changes in measures of anxiety, well-being and happiness, and without changes in gut microbiome diversity. We found strong correlations between greater consumption of fat and protein to lower anxiety and depression, while consuming higher percentages of carbohydrates was associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression." I think most of us would agree that make…

I don't know man, I feel pretty great when eating fries :)

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#63

Post by southwesterly »

darthrupert wrote: post #18
blakesterz wrote: post #13

"After the diet change, we observed significant changes in measures of anxiety, well-being and happiness, and without changes in gut microbiome diversity. We found strong correlations between greater consumption of fat and protein to lower anxiety and depression, while consuming higher percentages of carbohydrates was associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression." I think most of us would agree that make…

The idea that fat and protein are good while carbs are "crap" is controversial.

I mean… it’s all crap in the end, right?

Aren’t we just supposed to have a healthy mix of fats, proteins, carbs and fibre in a sensible portion size related to how much energy you usually expend over a given period?

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#64

Post by ericmcer »

runlaszlorun wrote: post #23
blakesterz wrote: post #13

"After the diet change, we observed significant changes in measures of anxiety, well-being and happiness, and without changes in gut microbiome diversity. We found strong correlations between greater consumption of fat and protein to lower anxiety and depression, while consuming higher percentages of carbohydrates was associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression." I think most of us would agree that make…

> I think most of us would agree that makes sense? Eat like crap, feel like crap? I’m just an average joe trying to figure out how to improve a diet, but I haven’t found much of a consensus regarding fats vs proteins vs carbohydrates.

Just try stuff out, you have your whole life to figure out what works for you diet wise. You won't die if you cut out carbs or meat or only eat hard boiled eggs for a week or something.

It may feel like a huge sacrifice eating a hyper-restrictive diet for 2-3 weeks but you have thousands of weeks of life. Personally I feel pretty dialed in with a diet high in fatty meats (beef, salmon) fibrous carbs and cooked vegetables (raw vegetables mess my stomach up).

Currently I am playing around with my "default weight" and if it can be adjusted. There is a weight we all sit at if we eat a relatively healthy diet to satiety and I am wondering if it can be adjusted. i.e. if someone sits at 170-180 for years and then goes through some intense shift that drops them to 150, will they bounce all the way back to their old "normal" range or is a new lower one established where they can consume the same number of calories to satiety but their weight remains in the lower range.

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#65

Post by southwesterly »

volleygman180 wrote: post #14

I'm glad to see more studies on this, as it's long been misunderstood how strong of a connection there is between the gut microbiome and mental health. Some go as far to referring to the gut as our second-brain, due to its critical role. Serotonin (the moood-regulating neurotransmitter), for instance, is produced _primarily_ in the gut (up to 95% of it). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469458/#:~:tex...…

That’s really interesting and helps explain all sorts of things in my life. Thanks for the link.

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#66

Post by Loughla »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #60
danesparza wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"slamming back-to-back cans of garbanzos" I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth ...

You're missing out. Here's Internet Shaquille's video on how to prepare them as a snack in 5 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EU76q3Vf3Q Highly recommend you try it. Get the Del Monte canned garbanzos if you live in North America.

Garbanzo beans have the texture of old ear wax, is sort of my problem with them. I have never been able to tell if I even like how they taste, because the texture is just so very off-putting.

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#67

Post by sschueller »

shafyy wrote: post #62
blakesterz wrote: post #13

"After the diet change, we observed significant changes in measures of anxiety, well-being and happiness, and without changes in gut microbiome diversity. We found strong correlations between greater consumption of fat and protein to lower anxiety and depression, while consuming higher percentages of carbohydrates was associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression." I think most of us would agree that make…

I don't know man, I feel pretty great when eating fries :)

I think there is a diminish of return on such foods. Fries are now pimped with bacon, cheese and all kinds of stuff. Sweet itmes are so over sweatened that if you eat a strawberry afterwards it tastes bland.

If we reduced the sweatiness of items we could enjoy them just as much as our senses adapt quite quickly. If I stop sugar for just 2 days and then eat something somewhat sweet it tastes very sweat.

It's a big issue with the food industry trying to outsweet each other because people are so used to the taste of sugar. Artificial sweeteners are also to blame for setting a hight expectation of sweetness in products.

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#69

Post by TylerLives »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #57
runlaszlorun wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most of us would agree that makes sense? Eat like crap, feel like crap? I’m just an average joe trying to figure out how to improve a diet, but I haven’t found much of a consensus regarding fats vs proteins vs carbohydrates.

Minimize saturated fat (by replacing it with unsaturated fat). Get enough protein. Eat healthy carbs*. * On HN and other social media, "carbs" is a euphemism for sugar and cake rather than beans and vegetables, so people will talk about how carbs made them fat when you know they're not talking about slamming back-to-back cans of garbanzos. And don't take any nutrition advice seriously that doesn't break fat apart int…

A different take on PUFAs - https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturatedfats.shtml

Re: The Role of Diet on the Gut Microbiome, Mood and Happiness

#70

Post by swalling »

shafyy wrote: post #62
blakesterz wrote: post #13

"After the diet change, we observed significant changes in measures of anxiety, well-being and happiness, and without changes in gut microbiome diversity. We found strong correlations between greater consumption of fat and protein to lower anxiety and depression, while consuming higher percentages of carbohydrates was associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression." I think most of us would agree that make…

I don't know man, I feel pretty great when eating fries :)

Potatoes produce the highest level of satiety compared to other carbs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267283/ Combined with fats via frying or baking, and it's not a joke that they would make you feel the most full compared to a similar amount of rice or refined wheat bread/pasta.

A slightly healthier but equally delicious replacement for fries are oven-roasted or grilled duck fat potatoes with the skin on.

Post reply on HN