Links between diet and health... IBS.
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- Lemon Quarter
- Posts: 4630
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Links between diet and health... IBS.
Well, duh, you might say. Obviously a bad diet leads to poor health.
Yes, one would think it's obvious. But one need only glimpse the waddling lumps of blubber emerging from certain supermarkets to see that this simple message is often unheard.
As a meat eater, I for instance am not always in Receive mode when the drawbacks of eating animals are highlighted. And I do love a piece of cake.
Fortunately my wife ensures that our diet is >90% healthy.
Where I worked there was a lady who suffered from IBS. The condition was medicated but never went away. It made her life a misery.
This was back in the 80s/90s when there was little understanding of causation.
Fortunately, things have moved on; here is a recent study pointing the finger at sugar and processed food. May be of use as a touchstone if you know someone who might benefit from a better diet.
https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2021/ ... 020-322670
Commentary here https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/m ... a-ibd-ibs/
A particular strength of this new study is its cataloguing of certain bacterial species with specific foods. For example, the research detected associations between increased volumes of Ruminococcus gnavus, Akkermansia muciniphila and Proteobacteria, and diets high in processed meat, sugar and fast food.
These particular bacteria are known to produce endotoxins and damage the gut’s mucus layer. This erosion of the gut barrier is especially prominent when a diet is lacking fibre.
Ahh, those Ruminococcus. Why do they never have simple names like Cynthia or Fred.
Please use this Topic if you wish to highlight other such dietary links.
V8
Yes, one would think it's obvious. But one need only glimpse the waddling lumps of blubber emerging from certain supermarkets to see that this simple message is often unheard.
As a meat eater, I for instance am not always in Receive mode when the drawbacks of eating animals are highlighted. And I do love a piece of cake.
Fortunately my wife ensures that our diet is >90% healthy.
Where I worked there was a lady who suffered from IBS. The condition was medicated but never went away. It made her life a misery.
This was back in the 80s/90s when there was little understanding of causation.
Fortunately, things have moved on; here is a recent study pointing the finger at sugar and processed food. May be of use as a touchstone if you know someone who might benefit from a better diet.
https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2021/ ... 020-322670
Commentary here https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/m ... a-ibd-ibs/
A particular strength of this new study is its cataloguing of certain bacterial species with specific foods. For example, the research detected associations between increased volumes of Ruminococcus gnavus, Akkermansia muciniphila and Proteobacteria, and diets high in processed meat, sugar and fast food.
These particular bacteria are known to produce endotoxins and damage the gut’s mucus layer. This erosion of the gut barrier is especially prominent when a diet is lacking fibre.
Ahh, those Ruminococcus. Why do they never have simple names like Cynthia or Fred.
Please use this Topic if you wish to highlight other such dietary links.
V8
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- Lemon Slice
- Posts: 306
- Joined: June 4th, 2017, 6:51 pm
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
Hi V8,
the generality of what you say is undoubtedly true and excellent advice for anyone.
However, as it frequently seems, few things are clear cut. I suffer from IBS but for other reasons have been obliged for decades to eat no added sugar or processed food and drink no alcohol. I eat a whole grain diet with modest meat intake.
TP2.
the generality of what you say is undoubtedly true and excellent advice for anyone.
However, as it frequently seems, few things are clear cut. I suffer from IBS but for other reasons have been obliged for decades to eat no added sugar or processed food and drink no alcohol. I eat a whole grain diet with modest meat intake.
TP2.
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- Lemon Quarter
- Posts: 4630
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
Bummer.TahiPanasDua wrote:the generality of what you say is undoubtedly true and excellent advice for anyone.
However, as it frequently seems, few things are clear cut. I suffer from IBS but for other reasons have been obliged for decades to eat no added sugar or processed food and drink no alcohol. I eat a whole grain diet with modest meat intake.
So, have you found anything that does help?
V8
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- Lemon Half
- Posts: 6263
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:35 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
I found my long-term IBS improved signficantly when I gave up coffee (for other reasons)
Thankfully beer doesn't seem to affect it one way or the other...
Thankfully beer doesn't seem to affect it one way or the other...
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- Lemon Half
- Posts: 6170
- Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
Lactose, gluten, avenin are all no go for me. I don't do sweeteners neither. Coffee's a no-no, but I can cope with caffeine. I can have a little wine but not too much. I can have a little brandy but find I have no will power with the stuff Anything with bubbles in and generally sweets all seem to have negative results. It's the pain more than anything than gets me down. Some days (today being one) it can't be a little wearing.AleisterCrowley wrote:I found my long-term IBS improved significantly when I gave up coffee (for other reasons)
Thankfully beer doesn't seem to affect it one way or the other...
Probiotics help.
AiY
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- Lemon Half
- Posts: 5980
- Joined: November 24th, 2016, 3:29 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
This is the main specialist subject of Professor Tim Spector of COVID Symptom Tracker fame. He has a LOT to say on the subject of what he terms the "micro-biome", or the colony of bugs in our gut. Apparently the make-up and health of this colony deeply affects not only our physical health but our mental health too, and it's make-up varies massively from one person to the next. Even the microbiomes in twins can be wildly different.
Have a goggle and/or look on youtube.
Have a goggle and/or look on youtube.
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- Lemon Half
- Posts: 9101
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
We have more bacterial cells in our bodies (mostly in the gut) than we have of our own cells.
It is apparently just over 50%, so after having a dump we become more if not mostly human.
Mrs RS eats no processed food, no meat, no gluten, no onion, garlic or spices, has a bad reaction to many foods and is borderline IBS. I agree that eating mainly highly processed foods is not good for you but the facts regarding gut health are more complex than that.
Look at Trump who seems to exist on a diet of fast food and coke yet apart from being borderline obese seems to survive OK. I'm sure we all know people who seem to have an appalling diet but have the classic "cast iron constitution" .
I think Michael Pollan has it cracked with his motto, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants".
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news ... 0important.
John
It is apparently just over 50%, so after having a dump we become more if not mostly human.
Mrs RS eats no processed food, no meat, no gluten, no onion, garlic or spices, has a bad reaction to many foods and is borderline IBS. I agree that eating mainly highly processed foods is not good for you but the facts regarding gut health are more complex than that.
Look at Trump who seems to exist on a diet of fast food and coke yet apart from being borderline obese seems to survive OK. I'm sure we all know people who seem to have an appalling diet but have the classic "cast iron constitution" .
I think Michael Pollan has it cracked with his motto, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants".
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news ... 0important.
John
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- Lemon Quarter
- Posts: 2743
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
It would be interesting to know how much of that 'cast iron constitution' is due to gut bacteria. It's a fascinating subject for research IMO.redsturgeon wrote:We have more bacterial cells in our bodies (mostly in the gut) than we have of our own cells.
It is apparently just over 50%, so after having a dump we become more if not mostly human.
Mrs RS eats no processed food, no meat, no gluten, no onion, garlic or spices, has a bad reaction to many foods and is borderline IBS. I agree that eating mainly highly processed foods is not good for you but the facts regarding gut health are more complex than that.
Look at Trump who seems to exist on a diet of fast food and coke yet apart from being borderline obese seems to survive OK. I'm sure we all know people who seem to have an appalling diet but have the classic "cast iron constitution" .
I think Michael Pollan has it cracked with his motto, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants".
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news ... 0important.
John
RC
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- Lemon Half
- Posts: 7157
- Joined: November 8th, 2016, 2:30 pm
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
As Mike4 has said, there's been some interesting research involving identical twins who grow up to be different shapes, and apparently the thinner one is generally the one with the better variety of gut bacteria. Not necessarily better bacteria, but a wider selection.ReformedCharacter wrote:It would be interesting to know how much of that 'cast iron constitution' is due to gut bacteria. It's a fascinating subject for research IMO.
A large part of our biome seems to be hereditary, but personal choices can still make a significant difference to the outcome. At the very least, the research seems to cast a lot of doubt on the simplistic mantra of "calories in vs calories used" when it comes to whether you get fat or not.
If you've already had your breakfast, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- ... eight-loss might also be of interest, although the research seems to involve putting human gut bacteria into mice, which seems a bit hard on the mice.
Having had some colonic surgery of my own over the last couple of years, I was warned that I ought to expect mood swings and tiredness for maybe another three or four years after the treatment was all over. For the slightly startling reason that your lower gut is significantly responsible for regulating the supply of dopamine, serotonin and various other hormones in your brain! (Insert any left-over Trump jokes here.) Yes, there's a well-recognised thing called the gut-brain axis which seems to have its own neural channel. And a part of that nay be that your gut hormones tell you when you're full. But the scientists aren't yet completely clear as to how it works.Then scientists took bacteria from the guts of human identical twins, one of whom was obese and one of whom was lean, and transferred those bacteria into the guts of lean, germ-free mice. Bacteria from the obese twin made the mice become fat, but bacteria from the lean twin did not.
Another one strictly for peeps who have had their breakfast: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/ful ... 00018.2018
BJ
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- Lemon Quarter
- Posts: 4630
- Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Re: Links between diet and health... IBS.
A study of ancient poo has found that the biomes of our ancestors were different from ours.
And while overall microbial diversity was higher in the ancient microbiome samples, there seemed to be some microbes conspicuously absent in the old poo. Akkermansia muciniphila, for example, was absent from all ancient samples and only rarely detected in non-Western modern samples. Prior studies have found increased volumes of Akkermansia muciniphila in people eating diets high in processed meat and sugar. This microbe is known to produce endotoxins associated with inflammation.
https://newatlas.com/science/ancient-gu ... n-species/
I recall reading somewhere quite a while ago that people with a narrow diet tend to be less healthy.
There's a lot to be learned about what's going on in our guts.
V8
And while overall microbial diversity was higher in the ancient microbiome samples, there seemed to be some microbes conspicuously absent in the old poo. Akkermansia muciniphila, for example, was absent from all ancient samples and only rarely detected in non-Western modern samples. Prior studies have found increased volumes of Akkermansia muciniphila in people eating diets high in processed meat and sugar. This microbe is known to produce endotoxins associated with inflammation.
https://newatlas.com/science/ancient-gu ... n-species/
I recall reading somewhere quite a while ago that people with a narrow diet tend to be less healthy.
There's a lot to be learned about what's going on in our guts.
V8