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

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

#171

Post by hydrok9 »

hirvi74 wrote: post #158
hydrok9 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where does your stress primarily come from?

Not trying to create a pity-party or be all woeful, but to answer your question: My source of stress is highly contextual, but fundamentally the common denominator would be a sense of insecurity. I feel a sense of financial stress due to not being financially secure. I have taken proper measures to ensure I am on the proper path to financial security, but it seems like one job loss, one major medical emergency, major…

Sounds a lot like me. Its a cycle that only you can break. medication might be needed, exercise is mandatory. Computers are overstimulating and you feel empty after because the people you tried to connect with and build things with are gone and were never really there. You sound desperate for someone else to validate you just like I was. Do whatever it takes, don't end up like me and ruin a bunch of your health and relationship with it.

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

#172

Post by freedomben »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #75
hombre_fatal wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 subsc…

Whole fruit is probably fine. Fruit juices are more similar to that can of coke and should probably be avoided.

> Fruit juices are more similar to that can of coke

It kills me how many people don't know this, or worse think that juice is healthy.

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

#173

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

handzhiev wrote: post #113
DrThunder wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. It's only controversial if you follow FDA recommendations. Any athlete knows this. Fat and protein are REQUIRED to build muscle and endurance. Carbs are great pre/post workout for energy and recovery. Our society has a massive excess of carbs in our diets that don't get used for energy production and just turn into fat.

Muscle and endurance does not automatically mean a healthy heart and liver though.

Nor does muscle and endurance in your youth equal longevity.

"Health" means different things to different people. An athlete might define health as physical strength, but another person might define health as the successful avoidance of illness and disease.

The longest living people who are super healthy in their 90s are not very muscular nor do they really partake in vigorous exercise. They're thinner people who didn't their lives eating little-to-zero meat and doing light physical activities like hiking.

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

#174

Post by hereme888 »

Snoo7654 wrote: post #136
snapcaster wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you confuse saturated and unsaturated fat? Saturated fat isn't bad for you and unsaturated fats have some serious issues in how your body uses them. This comment feels like it was posted by someone in 1997

I think you might have them confused yourself. First result from google: "Saturated fats (including a type called trans fat) tend to stay solid and can cause fatty deposits in blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"). By contrast, unsaturated fats stay liquid at room temperature and are less likely to clog your arteries."

Lol. That's like the arguments used back in the 80's or 90's against saturated fat, where the biased literature funded by the sugar industry produced commercials of people running cold water over lard to show that it remained solid hence clogged arteries.

Saturated fat is only solid at room temperature, not biological temperature. Put a tablespoon of coconut oil or butter in your mouth and see how it melts. More importantly, our body makes saturated fat. It's part of every cell's membrane. The science on which fats are good for us is still being debated, but I think the overall consensus so far is somewhat as follows: animal fats have more toxins (such as dioxins), and tend to come with cholesterol; non-animal fats are cleaner (whether saturated coconut oil or unsaturated types). Consuming too much fat blunts insulin sensitivity, but consuming too many carbs does likewise but in different ways. Carbs seem to be the bigger villain, but trans fats and low quality [rancid] oils are bad too. Having a good omega-3:6 ratio is anti-inflammatory and good for us. Eat lots of non-starchy vegetables, plenty of high quality protein, and reduce sugar consumption.

Data has been coming out over the past decade on how all the unsaturated fat touted as healthy is actually harmful, as it disrupts our hormone balance and increases inflammation. On the other hand, saturated fats are good for hormone balance, but I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to eat bacon or other high-toxin saturated fat. I'll just stick to the basics as stated in the previous paragraph.

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

#175

Post by ravenstine »

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…

> Minimize saturated fat (by replacing it with unsaturated fat).

No.

> * 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.

Maybe that's because nobody wants to slam down cans of garbanzo beans. Garbanzo beans suck unless they're made into something like hummus, and eating too much of that results in gas and gastrointestinal upset. That doesn't mean it's good for you or optimal in any way.

> And don't take any nutrition advice seriously that doesn't break fat apart into saturated and unsaturated.

Don't take any nutrition advice from somebody saying there are "healthy" carbs. There is no such thing, except degrees of contraindication. Only endogenous carbs can be considered healthy in a human being, so long as the body is properly regulating it.

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

#176

Post by ravenstine »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #84
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell the best research is that saturated fat is pretty neutral. Earlier research blaming saturated fat was flawed.

There is a whole mountain of evidence that saturated fat increases LDL cholesterol and better markers like Apo B. Placebo controlled, double-blind interventions. You can even run the experiment on yourself with monthly blood panels. Are you contesting that? That's pretty settled science. Low-carb influencers don't even deny that, so they instead try to hand-wave that high LDL/ApoB aren't a problem. Usually with some…

> What research do you think is so convincing that it supersedes this balance of evidence?

You seriously need to ask yourself that question before asking it of others.

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

#177

Post by ravenstine »

Snoo7654 wrote: post #136
snapcaster wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you confuse saturated and unsaturated fat? Saturated fat isn't bad for you and unsaturated fats have some serious issues in how your body uses them. This comment feels like it was posted by someone in 1997

I think you might have them confused yourself. First result from google: "Saturated fats (including a type called trans fat) tend to stay solid and can cause fatty deposits in blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"). By contrast, unsaturated fats stay liquid at room temperature and are less likely to clog your arteries."

The solidness of saturated fats has nothing to do with whether it is healthy or harmful to humans. Fatty acids are not transported by having them enter the bloodstream unchanged.

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

#178

Post by asdfman123 »

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…

> Eat like crap, feel like crap

But I’d like to know finer distinctions. Are low gi carbs okay? What about after workout? Is fiber necessary, for those on a low FODMAP diet? Etc.

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

#179

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

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…

In Italy people would tell you "pasta gives me good mood", so from a subjective point of view, no.

Fruit is carbs (except for avocado?) and it's definitely carbs, still very good for your body.

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

#180

Post by asdfman123 »

feoren wrote: post #99
Balooga wrote: post #91

I lost about 70lbs in about 10 months by cutting out processed foods, cutting out foods with added sugar, eating foods having a low glycemic index, eating a lot of chicken, whole vegetables, whole fruit. And by not juicing, and not drinking smoothies. I also did a lot of strength training so as to lose fat and not muscle. I didn't try to reduce the amount of calories I was eating, just change where those calories wer…

> cutting out foods with added sugar, eating foods having a low glycemic index, eating a lot of chicken, whole vegetables, whole fruit This is great advice for most people, depending on what "whole" means. Am I allowed to cut and cook my vegetables? Stick them in a food processor? Are they still "whole" then? I've never understood why people even bother to throw this word "whole" into anything. You just mean you didn…

>> cutting out processed foods

>This is utterly meaningless bullshit.

Actually, it isn’t.

If you’d like clarification as to what counts as processed foods, you can ask.

To answer your question, processed foods in this context usually means foods with chemicals in them, hydrogenized oils, etc.

The actual preparation doesn’t matter. It’s okay to eat food that has been chopped and frozen, for instance. Your digestive system tears food up anyway.

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