3 ms·

> As an example, we've often been told to eat more fibers to increase "flow" About 10 years ago I switched overnight from a very meat heavy diet to mostly plan

by kloch 4y ago

> As an example, we've often been told to eat more fibers to increase "flow" About 10 years ago I switched overnight from a very meat heavy diet to mostly plant based (I still eat dairy products and one or two servings of fish per week). Within a week I was shocked at how well my digestive tract was suddenly working. Before that I had no idea how broken it was. All other factors aside, I could never go back to the slow, uncomfortable digesting process of a typical USA meat heavy diet.

MacsHeadroom 4y ago
As long as we're sharing anecdotes; about 10 years ago I quit being vegan and transitioned into a carnivore diet. I now eat mostly red meats and my gut has never worked better. When I was vegan I had constant GI issues to the point of multiple hospitalizations. Everyone is different.
- valenaut 4y ago
  Just to finish off this Goldilocks story: I've been vegan for four years, and previously ate a meat and dairy heavy diet. I noticed basically no change to my gut health--it has been pretty good, with occasional minor issues, for my whole life.
  - ericmcer 4y ago
    This is the one for me. Keto, Vegan, Whatever specialty diet I try results in elevated energy and mood for a week or so and then a return to baseline. (Except with keto where I usually have no energy after a few weeks).
    - buu700 4y ago
      Anecdotally, I'm far healthier and more energetic than I was before starting keto a decade ago. I recommend everyone to give it a serious look. Granted, I can't entirely separate the effects of ketosis in and of itself from an overall cleaner diet with more vegetables and fewer processed foods. It's possible that the same diet with butter swapped out for quinoa would have yielded a similar result. As far as sweeteners, my go-to is liquid stevia, which I use about 1/5 a cup of daily. When I need a solid sweetener (e.g. for baking), I use inulin fiber sweetened with stevia and monk fruit, which creates a nicer texture than actual sugar IMO. I also have allulose on hand for specific use cases (e.g. caramelizing), but I can't really stomach it in large quantities. I don't particularly like or recommend sugar alcohols for any purpose, but erythritol is the the least bad of the bunch.
wintermutestwin 4y ago
My annecdata is that I spent two years eating a healthy vegetarian diet (to contrast with french fry vegetarians) and my digestive tract never adapted. I switched back to eating plenty of lean meat (mostly chicken and fish) and the plumbing almost instantly began working properly. The added benefit is that my diet is much higher in protein and lower in carbs, which definitely has helped me build and maintain muscle and reduce dad bod. Again, just annecdata, but maybe individuals have differing nutritional profiles that work best for them?
- dendrite9 4y ago
  Or maybe the masses inside those individuals have different needs? Different bacteria levels responding differently to various diets. I think that's what some of the microbiome companies were working on, but I don't think it was ever successful.
orangepurple 4y ago
You can run the same experiment with water fasting. We overeat.
stephc_int13 4y ago
From my experience, the worst thing is eating the same thing all the time, no matter what it is. The goal is to keep your microbiota as far as possible to a monoculture. I am absolutely not an expert on this subject, but so far, my understanding is that there are not really "healthy" bacteria, there are only healthy mixes where different species balances and keep the other from growing.

by kloch 4y ago

MacsHeadroom 4y ago

As long as we're sharing anecdotes; about 10 years ago I quit being vegan and transitioned into a carnivore diet. I now eat mostly red meats and my gut has never worked better. When I was vegan I had constant GI issues to the point of multiple hospitalizations. Everyone is different.

valenaut 4y ago
Just to finish off this Goldilocks story: I've been vegan for four years, and previously ate a meat and dairy heavy diet. I noticed basically no change to my gut health--it has been pretty good, with occasional minor issues, for my whole life.
- ericmcer 4y ago
  This is the one for me. Keto, Vegan, Whatever specialty diet I try results in elevated energy and mood for a week or so and then a return to baseline. (Except with keto where I usually have no energy after a few weeks).
  - buu700 4y ago
    Anecdotally, I'm far healthier and more energetic than I was before starting keto a decade ago. I recommend everyone to give it a serious look. Granted, I can't entirely separate the effects of ketosis in and of itself from an overall cleaner diet with more vegetables and fewer processed foods. It's possible that the same diet with butter swapped out for quinoa would have yielded a similar result. As far as sweeteners, my go-to is liquid stevia, which I use about 1/5 a cup of daily. When I need a solid sweetener (e.g. for baking), I use inulin fiber sweetened with stevia and monk fruit, which creates a nicer texture than actual sugar IMO. I also have allulose on hand for specific use cases (e.g. caramelizing), but I can't really stomach it in large quantities. I don't particularly like or recommend sugar alcohols for any purpose, but erythritol is the the least bad of the bunch.

wintermutestwin 4y ago

My annecdata is that I spent two years eating a healthy vegetarian diet (to contrast with french fry vegetarians) and my digestive tract never adapted. I switched back to eating plenty of lean meat (mostly chicken and fish) and the plumbing almost instantly began working properly. The added benefit is that my diet is much higher in protein and lower in carbs, which definitely has helped me build and maintain muscle and reduce dad bod. Again, just annecdata, but maybe individuals have differing nutritional profiles that work best for them?

dendrite9 4y ago
Or maybe the masses inside those individuals have different needs? Different bacteria levels responding differently to various diets. I think that's what some of the microbiome companies were working on, but I don't think it was ever successful.

orangepurple 4y ago

You can run the same experiment with water fasting. We overeat.

stephc_int13 4y ago

From my experience, the worst thing is eating the same thing all the time, no matter what it is. The goal is to keep your microbiota as far as possible to a monoculture. I am absolutely not an expert on this subject, but so far, my understanding is that there are not really "healthy" bacteria, there are only healthy mixes where different species balances and keep the other from growing.