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" the part of the study that most surprised other experts was an experiment indicating that, with the right diet, it might be possible to change the bacteria in
by grannyg00se 13y ago
" the part of the study that most surprised other experts was an experiment indicating that, with the right diet, it might be possible to change the bacteria in a fat person’s gut so that they promote leanness rather than obesity. "
Right. So back to the same common sense advice. It would seem wise to simply fix your diet first, maybe throw in a little exercise, and then see what happens. That is, before trying things like fecal transplants.
- loceng 13y agoI think the idea would be that you could fast-track the process, with compounded benefits / amplifying the effects. I've not looked into this much, so not sure if that is a possibility.
- chm 13y agoCommon sense still has to be scientifically tested.
- js2 13y agoIt's more complicated than that. First it's worth quoting the rest of that paragraph: "The investigators discovered that given a chance, and in the presence of a low-fat diet, bacteria from a lean twin will take over the gut of a mouse that already had bacteria from a fat twin. The fat mouse then loses weight. But the opposite does not happen. No matter what the diet, bacteria from a fat mouse do not take over in a mouse that is thin." Second, the context (described later in the article) is among co-habitating mice that eat each other's droppings, allowing their gut flora to commingle. When the mice were kept separate, the mice that had received gut flora from a fat human twin ended up 10-15% heavier even on the identical low-fat diet as the mice that received flora from a thin human. (Aside, because it's personal: I have no trouble controlling my weight through diet and exercise. When I ate poorly and exercised little I was as heavy as 190 lbs. With exercise and being mindful about my diet I have no trouble maintaining 150 lbs. My wife, otoh, has struggled with her weight almost her entire life. To lose weight she has to weigh and track every ounce of food she consumes. It is a constant battle for her. Sadly, I see this dichotomy playing out in our son and daughter. My son will never struggle with his weight; I fear my daughter always may. And we eat well in this house. Real food, mostly plants, not too much. So yeah, I think some people are thin almost no matter what they eat, some struggle with weight almost no matter what they do, and some are more in between. But a holier than thou attitude about being thin helps no one.)
- grannyg00se 13y agoIt is clearly more complicated, but I don't see anything in your response that would indicate that one should not try fixing their diet as a first course of action.
- bobbydavid 13y agoI think js2 agrees diet and exercise is a good first course of action, but is responding to the subtle implication, intended or not, that diet and exercise are sufficient; that no further (more drastic) measures are needed. From his post he clearly agrees diet is the preferred course of action if it works on its own (as it does for him).
- grannyg00se 13y agoI was trying to imply that diet and exercise should be sufficient most of the time, but not always. That's why I said "and then see what happens". Research is needed and more good research is always welcome but until we know how these things actually work, my bias is toward the simpler, more well understood options.
- beagle3 13y ago> diet and exercise should be sufficient most of the time, but not always. Why do you assume most? Just because that's the prevailing wisdom, doesn't mean it's true.
- oblique63 13y agoNot only that, it completely overlooks the current obesity epidemic. If it was really such an open-shut case, we probably could've at least contained the problem by now. If a theory depends on mass laziness and ineptitude from the same ingenious species that brought us all our modern innovations and wisdom, then something's not right. It's disingenuous to suggest that such behaviour should be so natural and prevalent amongst human beings; especially when it has only just exploded in the last few decades...
- AJ007 13y agoThis story really doesn't belong on HN, but I digress since it relates to a health issue I've seen a lot of software developers experience, Making the assumption that the average obese person eat diets largely consisting of processed food (which though is not always high glycemic index is almost always accompanied by something which is), someone who is eating a diet of unprocessed foods should have a greater diversity in their gut bacteria. One thing I have not seen mentioned is the use of anti-biotic medicine and gut bacteria. I now know of multiple friends who have undergone a regimen of heavy anti-biotic medicine, only to have digestive problems for anywhere from 6 months to well over a year and beyond.
- jared314 13y ago> undergone a regimen of heavy anti-biotic medicine, only to have digestive problems They have, recently, started to understand how that happens[1][2]. [1] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12503.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu... [2] http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/sonnenburg.html http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/sonnenburg.html
- avalaunch 13y agoI'm responding just to your first point that the story doesn't belong on HN. From HN submission guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. I think the story qualifies.
- wwweston 13y agoWhat diet is "the right diet" for changing gut bacteria? Is it the same as common sense advice? If so, which common sense advice?
- grannyg00se 13y agoI would say that trying to change your diet to target a particular gut bacteria profile is not quite the way to go about it.
- hackinthebochs 13y agoYes, because fecal transplants are so invasive.