4 ms·

> appear to be temporary That's a good point to bring up, but I do wonder if this is splitting hairs just a little bit. A shift in your microbiome might be tec

> appear to be temporary That's a good point to bring up, but I do wonder if this is splitting hairs just a little bit. A shift in your microbiome might be technically temporary while still making things feel very weird for that temporary period -- however long that takes to change. Also keep in mind: > Whether prolonged dietary changes can induce permanent alterations in the gut microbiota is unknown, mainly due to a lack of long-term human dietary interventions, or long-term follow-ups of short-term dietary interventions. > > [...] > > Our understanding of the duration required for a dietary intervention to have an enduring impact on the gut microbiota, and consequently health, is hampered by several limitations. Firstly, there is a lack of long-term human studies, or indeed follow-ups of short-term dietary interventions, that seek to establish if a diet-induced modulation of the gut microbiota endures, though the wash-out periods of cross-sectional studies provide some indirect insight. ---- All that to say I actually kind of agree, and I also don't see super-strong scientific evidence of induced lactose intolerance, but I qualify that by saying that it might just be a lack of study. And again, could also be a difference in what people mean by "permanent". If something makes you lactose intolerant for a month, that's still interesting, even if that's not meeting GP's "in a year" claim. I've been vegan for maybe a year and half at this point, and was vegetarian before that. I'm curious how my body would react to eating a meat/cheese/lactose heavy meal if I sprang one on it out of the blue (not curious enough to actually try it, but it would be an interesting experiment).

DoreenMichele 4y ago
I'm not splitting hairs. I'm engaging in conversation to the best of my ability while under the weather, which is generally true of my interactions on HN. My anecdotal experience or understanding is that potato starch is generally good for gut health, that you can nearly live on potatoes alone which is why the Irish Potato Famine was such a big deal -- big families on small plots of land were keeping people alive by growing mostly potatoes and people died in droves when the potato crop was screwed up -- and if you include oils in your "potato only" diet like the instructions allow for, coconut oil is medically known for many decades to be good for gut health due to being high in medium chain triglycerides and a guy with a PhD told me it's specifically good for microbiota. Butter is also a decent source of medium chain triglycerides though not as high as coconut oil. Whatever is or is not true generally about "eat ONLY this" diets, my suspicion is a potato only diet -- especially if you include the right oils/fats -- is probably not a big threat to your microbiota (though other sources here are saying that losing your lactose tolerance totally is a thing and that may well be something that can happen with this diet). Which I didn't want to say and may yet regret saying, but in for a penny, in for a pound as they say.
- danShumway 4y ago
  > I'm not splitting hairs. I'm engaging in conversation to the best of my ability while under the weather, which is generally true of my interactions on HN. Not sure if my phrasing got this across, but I didn't mean "splitting hairs" as an intentional act or in the sense of spreading division or prompting argument, and I didn't interpret your comment as making a really strong claim in either direction. I just interpreted your comment as public musing, same as what I was doing. I only meant "splitting hairs" in the sense that a person who runs into temporary lactose-intolerance will still have trouble for the duration of that time period. For whatever it's worth, I didn't interpret your comment as trying to say that temporary changes couldn't exist, or that you were supporting a potato-only diet, or that the OP was lying, or anything like that. At the end of the day I'm not a doctor, I've got no idea what a potato-only diet will do to someone's microbiome. I'm just posting stuff on the Internet.

DoreenMichele 4y ago

I'm not splitting hairs. I'm engaging in conversation to the best of my ability while under the weather, which is generally true of my interactions on HN. My anecdotal experience or understanding is that potato starch is generally good for gut health, that you can nearly live on potatoes alone which is why the Irish Potato Famine was such a big deal -- big families on small plots of land were keeping people alive by growing mostly potatoes and people died in droves when the potato crop was screwed up -- and if you include oils in your "potato only" diet like the instructions allow for, coconut oil is medically known for many decades to be good for gut health due to being high in medium chain triglycerides and a guy with a PhD told me it's specifically good for microbiota. Butter is also a decent source of medium chain triglycerides though not as high as coconut oil. Whatever is or is not true generally about "eat ONLY this" diets, my suspicion is a potato only diet -- especially if you include the right oils/fats -- is probably not a big threat to your microbiota (though other sources here are saying that losing your lactose tolerance totally is a thing and that may well be something that can happen with this diet). Which I didn't want to say and may yet regret saying, but in for a penny, in for a pound as they say.

danShumway 4y ago
> I'm not splitting hairs. I'm engaging in conversation to the best of my ability while under the weather, which is generally true of my interactions on HN. Not sure if my phrasing got this across, but I didn't mean "splitting hairs" as an intentional act or in the sense of spreading division or prompting argument, and I didn't interpret your comment as making a really strong claim in either direction. I just interpreted your comment as public musing, same as what I was doing. I only meant "splitting hairs" in the sense that a person who runs into temporary lactose-intolerance will still have trouble for the duration of that time period. For whatever it's worth, I didn't interpret your comment as trying to say that temporary changes couldn't exist, or that you were supporting a potato-only diet, or that the OP was lying, or anything like that. At the end of the day I'm not a doctor, I've got no idea what a potato-only diet will do to someone's microbiome. I'm just posting stuff on the Internet.