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Since there's so much interest in gut biomes you may be interested in learning that what you eat greatly influences your biome. A vegan diet has been shown to s

Since there's so much interest in gut biomes you may be interested in learning that what you eat greatly influences your biome. A vegan diet has been shown to substantially change your flora [1] in as little as a day [2]. I also found this video on the role of fiber, our gut flora, and our immune system interesting [3]. [1]: http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v66/n1/full/ejcn2011141a.html http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v66/n1/full/ejcn2011141a.... [2]: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature12820.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature1... [3]: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner-garden/ http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner...

justboxing 11y ago
Thanks, I am a recently turned vegan. I can't say I have experienced the change in "as little as a day". I've been a lifelong lacto-vegetarian (like most indian people) and recently dropped diary (last 2 years).
- unmole 11y ago
  > I've been a lifelong lacto-vegetarian (like most indian people) Nitpick: Most Indians are NOT vegetarians, less than a third are. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/the-food-habits-of-a-nation/article3089973.ece http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/the-food-habits-of-a-na...
- mnkc 11y ago
  SpellingNazi nitpick: Pick up the diary, and drop the dairy—if you must.
schoen 11y ago
It's important for vegans and advocates of veganism (like myself) to be cautious and intellectually honest about possible health benefits of a vegan diet. I'm particularly thinking about things like how John Robbins used to do it, where he threw out page after page of correlations between populations eating animal protein and populations suffering disease burdens. That may have persuaded some people, but there are so many other factors (even just dietary factors) that could have accounted for the correlations! The gut biome topic is hot now, but our understanding of it is so new and so limited that it's going to take a while to be confident about what would be a "good" or "healthy" biome in particular ways. It's definitely easy to change it, but still kind of unclear about how to know when particular changes can reasonably be called good or bad or beneficial or harmful (with particular counterexamples like clostridium difficile infection -- that seems bad).

justboxing 11y ago

Thanks, I am a recently turned vegan. I can't say I have experienced the change in "as little as a day". I've been a lifelong lacto-vegetarian (like most indian people) and recently dropped diary (last 2 years).

unmole 11y ago
> I've been a lifelong lacto-vegetarian (like most indian people) Nitpick: Most Indians are NOT vegetarians, less than a third are. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/the-food-habits-of-a-nation/article3089973.ece http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/the-food-habits-of-a-na...
mnkc 11y ago
SpellingNazi nitpick: Pick up the diary, and drop the dairy—if you must.

schoen 11y ago

It's important for vegans and advocates of veganism (like myself) to be cautious and intellectually honest about possible health benefits of a vegan diet. I'm particularly thinking about things like how John Robbins used to do it, where he threw out page after page of correlations between populations eating animal protein and populations suffering disease burdens. That may have persuaded some people, but there are so many other factors (even just dietary factors) that could have accounted for the correlations! The gut biome topic is hot now, but our understanding of it is so new and so limited that it's going to take a while to be confident about what would be a "good" or "healthy" biome in particular ways. It's definitely easy to change it, but still kind of unclear about how to know when particular changes can reasonably be called good or bad or beneficial or harmful (with particular counterexamples like clostridium difficile infection -- that seems bad).