Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice • Hacker News Board

Re: Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice

#131

Post by gte910h » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:02 PM UTC

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #69

jonnathanson wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential, but: is the whole obsession with fiber a bit misguided? If polysaccharides are largely responsible for feeding gut bacteria (good and bad), and your link recommends cutting them out, then by definition, we should be cutting out dietary fibers (most of which are polysaccharides). Fiber is mostly undigestible in our stomachs and upper GI tracts, but is readily fermented by (and feeds) intestinal bacteria. O…

The fiber helps your bowels work correctly. We were not created to evacuate bricks. You don't need a PhD in organic chemistry and biology to understand that, just experience with babies.

Non-digestible fiber helps your bowels move. Digestible fiber actually slows bowel action.

Re: Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice

#132

Post by gte910h » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:03 PM UTC

Mz wrote: post #90

jonnathanson wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes and no. A lot of cultures live almost exclusively on carnivorous diets, in which vegetable fiber is extremely rare (if eaten at all). Evidently the fats in the diet serve as lubricants in the absence of the mechanical action that fibers serve in the intestines. I'm not disputing that fibers help "push things along" by absorbing water, adding bulk, etc. But are we overeating them? Do we really need to be mak…

I think that depends in part on who your ancestors are -- I.e. do you have genes from a carnivorous culture? My exhusband is part Viking, basically. They ate a lot of meat, in part because they lived so far north that you couldn't grow enough plantbased foods. My ex ate a very high meat diet. Our sons eat less meat than he did, but they are 1/4 Norwegian whereas he is 1/2. Still, they tolerate more meat in their diet…

The vikings actually were mostly crop farmers. Due to the weird way Caribbean waters flow up through the Atlantic and past Brittian.

http://www.danishnet.com/info.php/vikings/farming-152.html

Re: Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice

#133

Post by gte910h » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:11 PM UTC

fernly wrote: post #116

This is potentially huge news. If it can be replicated you can take all the high-fat/low-fat, high-carb/low-carb, paleo whatever diets and chuck them. "we show that one endotoxin-producing bacterium isolated from a morbidly obese human’s gut induced obesity and insulin resistance in germfree mice." "Germ-free mice" are mice raised from before birth with no germs, so the effect of a single infection can be observed wi…

>well, not the eradication of smallpox, but pretty close.

Heart disease kills far more people than smallpox ever did. You have a 20% higher chance of heart disease if overweight.

Re: Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice

#134

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:14 PM UTC

indiecore wrote: post #40

patrickgzill wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious if you have experimented with the following: 1. increase iodine intake in some fashion 2. cut out all wheat products including whole grain 3. Atkins-style diet with restricted carbs in general 4. increased use of ginger as a spice or in tea (some believe it helps increase metabolic rate). 5. high intensity interval training (you mention exercise).

Caffine, Ephedrine (it's in congestion medicine like Brokaid in the US) and Yohmbine all have complementary effects on your metabolic rate and the last two have been shown to help speed fat loss while minimizing muscle loss.

[deleted]

Re: Pathogen from gut of obese human causes obesity in germfree mice

#135

Post by Mz » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:38 PM UTC

gte910h wrote: post #132

Mz wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that depends in part on who your ancestors are -- I.e. do you have genes from a carnivorous culture? My exhusband is part Viking, basically. They ate a lot of meat, in part because they lived so far north that you couldn't grow enough plantbased foods. My ex ate a very high meat diet. Our sons eat less meat than he did, but they are 1/4 Norwegian whereas he is 1/2. Still, they tolerate more meat in their diet…

The vikings actually were mostly crop farmers. Due to the weird way Caribbean waters flow up through the Atlantic and past Brittian. http://www.danishnet.com/info.php/vikings/farming-152.html

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that Vikings only ate meat. Just that they appear to have eaten a lot more meat than most other Europeans (I am mostly German and Irish in ancestory). That isn't inconsistent with my point that genes likely influence one's tolerance in this regard.

Even the site you link to talks about lamb and other meat being a regular part of the Viking diet. In Europe, the children's rhyme "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold" refers to the common practice of serving some sort of hot meal at lunch and cold leftovers at dinner. Peas porridge was likely either vegetarian or had very little meat in it. When I had some poetry class in college, it pointed out that "Greasy Jane stirs the pot" suggested a servant in an upper class household preparing a dish containing meat, which was something of a luxury item. The "greasy" imagery indicates it contained meat. Peasants could not afford meat on a routine basis. Further back in history, Romans ate far more eggs than meat.

My ex was a history buff. We talked a fair amount about things like that.

Sorry for the sloppy wording earlier.