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Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

nytimes.com

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Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#91
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly suspect any highly restrictive diet will have the same effect no matter the restriction. Especially if "junk food" is one of the restrictions. You hear plenty of stuff like "I went vegan, food tastes so much better now, I've lost weight, I have so much energy, my mood is better, blah blah blah." Same with "alkaline diet," "cabbage soup diet," "low inflammation diet," "bacon diet," "salad diet," "gluten free…

This guy lost 50kg eating nothing but white potatoes for a year: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/... I personally wouldn't recommend that but it underlines the point that not all carbs are created equal. Our bodies process complex carbs with fiber very differently than refined sugars.

Additionally, carbs can be more difficult to absorb if they are mixed with fibres. Sugars in apples are an example.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#92
post #14

I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. I was never a health nut. Quite the opposite. It's incredible how much your physiology alters just from that. Water tastes good now. I used to drink water with crystal light, because it was so bland. Shed 20lbs without even exercising. I eat bananas, apples, peanut butter and chicken. Learned to cook a few things. You sort of have to, if you want to avoid…

I have now been seeing from numerous sources that in order to lose weight, diet dominates exercise. One of the reasons is that exercise is associated with compensatory behaviors (such as increased hunger). So exercise for the health benefits, but alter your diet to lose weight. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-para...

> I have now been seeing from numerous sources that in order to lose weight, diet dominates exercise

Indeed, and it goes the other way around too: not even counting weight in, any competent trainer will tell you that the first step to proper efficient exercise is a proper healthy diet. Losing weight then comes as a side effect, exercise being a catalyst to the diet that comes with it.

> One of the reasons is that exercise is associated with compensatory behaviors (such as increased hunger)

Personal experience: exercise comes with increased, yet highly self-regulated hunger, whereas it would slowly go unregulated when not exercising. Also, the things my body craves for are fundamentally different when I exercise than when I don't.

This, to me, comes from two types of very different feelings of what we call "hunger" (and its opposite "replete"): one that comes from stomach emptiness/fullness, and one that comes from the energy/material one needs to or has absorbed. The former is a downright lie, and exercise has a tendency to shut it down while lack thereof makes you forget the latter in favour of the former, which is then boundlessly growing because the stomach is highly elastic and is easily trained to expand more and more.

Also there seems to be a fundamental difference between both as I find the former also seems to aim to compensate some lack of dopamine/adrenaline/whatevs (this stuff is way over my head) that I get when exercising. The hunger I get when exercising is more genuine and truthful, while the one I get otherwise is more deceitful and addictive.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#93

I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. I was never a health nut. Quite the opposite. It's incredible how much your physiology alters just from that. Water tastes good now. I used to drink water with crystal light, because it was so bland. Shed 20lbs without even exercising. I eat bananas, apples, peanut butter and chicken. Learned to cook a few things. You sort of have to, if you want to avoid…

Same experience here, sugar shifts your taste calibration up. You become attracted to high intensity, and blind in a way, to anything of smaller "dynamics".

When I cut sugar, I started to feel tastes again, in mundane things like lettuce, carrots, tomatos; felt like a cool breeze of various sensations. None were intense or satisfying in themselves, but the whole thing felt good enough, surprising, and more importantly no strings attached. You don't want to eat too much, you don't have after taste in your mouth, no sugar spike after eating. Felt just right. With "tasty" food you often end up keeping ingesting more and more. These things add up.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#94
post #4

This is only tangentially related, but I've been practicing intermittent fasting for the past year, and I cannot recommend it enough -- it honestly changed my life. I feel better, I sleep more regularly, I have more energy, and my mind is more alert. I only eat from 12PM to 8PM. IF is also supposed to have an impact on your microbiome, reduce inflammation, and encourage autophagy (especially in the brain). PS: Please…

Do you drink coffee before then? I could probably do this diet most days (I've done many days within a 10 hour window) but I 'start the clock' early if you count black coffee, since it's something I start every morning with. EDIT: See you answered that question. I should get back on this.

I 'CTRL+F' for coffee, but only see it mentioned in your comment. Where else was it mentioned?

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy lost 50kg eating nothing but white potatoes for a year: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/... I personally wouldn't recommend that but it underlines the point that not all carbs are created equal. Our bodies process complex carbs with fiber very differently than refined sugars.

Additionally, carbs can be more difficult to absorb if they are mixed with fibres. Sugars in apples are an example.

It's not that they are more difficult to absorb but rather fiber blunts the insulin response. Insulin is a fat-storing hormone so the less that gets secreted, the less fat you are prone to storing. Coupling that with copious amounts of readily available carbs + fat and you're gonna have a bad time.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#96
post #45
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any pedantry. OP said they dropped all sugar which would imply natural sugars as well. > I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. [...] > I eat bananas, apples, peanut butter and chicken. Learned to cook a few things. It's not clear to me why sugar from an apple is better than sugar from soda. Can you explain or link to a source?

>It's not clear to me why sugar from an apple is better than sugar from soda. Can you explain or link to a source? The obvious difference is that I can only eat so many apples; I've gotta eat three apples to get as much sugar as a soda pop (or a cup of apple juice, for that matter... apple juice has more sugar than soda pop.) There is also a claim that the effort to digest an apple makes it a lot better for you than…

I often wonder about this.

The whole "modern" food are optimized/stripped to only throw sugar at you. I had the same conclusion, most natural food I can't eat more than 3 of them: apples, oranges, even strawberries they're not just sugar, they have bits of sour, acid that balance the pleasing parts and makes you want to stop after a little.

When I was sick, apples were the only fruit I could eat that left me untouched, at that time even a minute amount of sugar would make me faint.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#97
Has anyone done research on the probiotic industry? Are there brands that are considered safer, better, than the rest?

I was reading about the vitamin pill industry, and that made me stare questionably at the probiotic bottle my wife buys -- where does it come from and is it safe? Two questions I have no answers for.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#98
I have pretty mild IBS symptoms, but I concur - exercising at the very least has helped regulate my gut. At least to the extent that I can live a normal life without having to be constantly aware of the nearest bathroom.

Can’t recommend regular exercise enough to those experiencing similar issues. Running would be my recommendation. I wonder if the rhythm of exercise is partially responsible.

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#99
post #85
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why you would exclude potatoes and eat bananas. They are very very similar foods. Everything that is flour based is refined, lacks fiber etc so I get the pasta and bread exclusion, but the potatoes one makes no sense imo. Overall in this thread, once again americans discover that they eat shit and simply cooking meals yourself from scratch (with limited fat of course) with no treats between meals makes yo…

Well, it's because our government published official diet recommendations (look up the Food Pyramid) and told us we should be eating more grains than absolutely anything else. Science on sugar has been repressed in our country, and the corn industry has exerted pressure in various ways to put corn syrup into absolutely everything. When I grew up, everything I had ever learned told me it was normal and healthy. I have…

We also had the food pyramid (it even originated in sweden, the WHO/FAO still edits a version of it), and I don't think it was much different. Also I don't think that science on sugar has been especially promoted anywhere either.

I don't think our preprocessed foods use as much sugar as yours (do we even have corn syrup ?). But we sure have some [edit : preprocessed foods], although they are probably not as bad as american's because of stricter regulation (bless the EU).

Re: Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

#100
post #81

I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. I was never a health nut. Quite the opposite. It's incredible how much your physiology alters just from that. Water tastes good now. I used to drink water with crystal light, because it was so bland. Shed 20lbs without even exercising. I eat bananas, apples, peanut butter and chicken. Learned to cook a few things. You sort of have to, if you want to avoid…

I don't get why you would exclude potatoes and eat bananas. They are very very similar foods. Everything that is flour based is refined, lacks fiber etc so I get the pasta and bread exclusion, but the potatoes one makes no sense imo. Overall in this thread, once again americans discover that they eat shit and simply cooking meals yourself from scratch (with limited fat of course) with no treats between meals makes yo…

Is nutrition and cooking / domestic skills part of the American school curriculum or widely taught ?
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