Health & Family Gut health

lately I have been reading up on this new health thing; even some medical centres are advertising “Gut health”

Not sure what they actually do though

Anyway since i have had gut sickness over the last few months after eating kebabs and Hungry Jacks constantly i started looking at reading gut health

I was getting a lot of heavy stomach feeling , bloating, flatulence etc constipation

I started to watch what i eat and milk it seems is a problem but now i have started on these Yakult milks even though the sugar is very very high apparently

4 Yoghurts a day , All Bran and 2 litres of water and i think the poisons from the kebabs maybe have been left my gut area
Im using Almond milk which is the new craze too

Also the hardest .....not overfilling my stomach on eating but im feeling better because of it.and no eating befire bed many a times how many of you woke up with this acide reflux burning your throat .?

Its important even if its a new health craze to be concerned about your gut heakth because having a heavy stomach makes you less energy

 

Read “The Mystery Gut” by Prof. Kerryn Phelps and Dr. Lee.

Should tell you everything you want to know.
Marg

 

www.nutritionfacts.org

I've been on a whole food, plant based binge for the last year. Lost ten percent of my body weight, no longer pre-diabetic, much better bloods, feel better etc etc. Not to mention far more comfortable in the gut department. Oh and I never feel hungry because I'm eating heaps but it's all calorically dilute with lots of fibre.

I have become convinced that we evolved to eat a lot more fibre than a normal diet currently gives us.

 

This is not a new health thing. Researchers have been studying "Gut Health" since at least 1986.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245223171730012X

All bran is not good. It is extracted from a whole food, processed and concentrated. Just think: whole foods are generally good, processed foods should be restricted (eat less). Think of an apple. An apple is good. A glass of apple juice is not as good because it is missing the fibre. You can process an apple and produce pectin. Don't eat pectin.

Now bran can be bad for you

not new. Also, almond milk can be high in sugar. Check the label before buying.

Only once in my life. If you get this regularly then you are definitely doing something wrong. Have a look at what you are eating, how much you are eating and when you are eating. You should never get acid burning reflux in your throat.

It's not new and not a craze. There is a lot of medical evidence linking gut health with physical and mental health.

It's not difficult to look after your guts. This is a good one for you. Note point number 4 - no junk food

How To Keep Your Gut Healthy | CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet

Drink plenty of water, eat vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains. On top of that, my go to foods for gut health are:

1. sweet potato that has been cooked then cooled to increase the resistant starch
2. two squares of good quality dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cocoa solids
3. four small pieces of good quality fresh liquorice such as Darrell Lea Batch 37 Batch 37 Liquorice 300g - Darrell Lea
4. coconut milk with no additives (ingredients: Coconut Milk, Water)

 

I did this a few years ago except I still ate eggs, cheese, milk and yoghurt because they are actually good for you. Still, I ate a whole lot more fruit, veg, whole grains and legumes than I ever have before. It is surprising how much effort it takes to chew that much food compared with how easy it is to swallow processed food with barely any effort. At the end of the first few days my jaw was actually sore from all the chewing. On the upsides, I had a lot more energy, I felt more alert and I was never hungry because I was eating a lot and often. I ended up losing more than 10kg, which was more than 10% of my body weight. The only reason I stopped was because I no longer had time to make all the food I was eating. I have time now though so I should go back on it. I miss the big salads I used to eat for lunch. Yummy.

 

@MyDarlinghurst How Probiotics Affect Mental Health | NutritionFacts.org

 

I'm interested in what evidence you have to support this statement. AFAIK the saturated fat content has a clear link to heart disease, there is now a clear link between dairy consumption and osteoporosis and the cholesterol in eggs still ends up in your arteries / brain / etc.

I guess they are sources of protein but given the fact we get way more than enough protein from plant food, there is no-one other than anorexics in hospital as a result of a lack of protein and hospitals are clogged with people who eat too much protein, then I'm unconvinced on that front. Not too mention the metabolic load and inflammation caused by animal sources of protein.

BTW - I'm no vegan - I just have an obsession with evidence for this stuff given that our diets are the main determinant of both our health and longevity.

 

Most of that has been debunked. I don't have time to address it all but to pick 2:

1) recent research suggests that dairy saturated fat is protective against type 2 diabetes Consumption of dairy foods and diabetes incidence: a dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic

2) research for a long time has found that eating cholesterol has no real impact on cholesterol metabolism Why You Should Stop Eating Egg Whites

3) the link between saturated fat and heart disease has been debunked by the evidence

For decades, the consumption of long-chain saturated ***** acids (SAFA; containing 12-18 carbon atoms) was thought to undermine cardiovascular health. However, recent meta-analyses of prospective observational studies [1, 2] reported that SAFA intake was associated with neither coronary heart disease (CHD) nor stroke mortality nor myocardial infarction.​

Saturated Fat Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Ischemic Stroke: A Science Update

A lot of the stuff about saturated fat, dairy and heart disease comes from the widely debunked China Study. This is the biggest takedown of the China Study I have ever seen.

The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?

One study doesn't prove anything, it is the body of evidence that is important. There are also problems when you follow a person who selects the studies to summarise and you don't read the studies yourself. Michael Greger, who runs Nutrition Facts has been accused of cherry picking studies to include in his videos and misrepresenting the studies that he does select. The confirm this you would need to read all of the studies linked to in a video and see if the video accurately represents what the studies say. Here is one example: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/death-as-a-foodborne-illness-curable-by-veganism/

I am not arguing that this isn't controversial. Even the experts don't agree https://www.theguardian.com/society...heart-attack-risk-low-fat-foods-cardiologists

In conclusion, I will quote from the article above:

The video confirmed what I already knew from evaluating the published evidence: it is healthier to eat more plant-based foods and less red meat. It didn’t convince me that we should categorically eliminate all animal products. The vegan diet can be a healthy one, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from following it; but the evidence for health benefits is nowhere near as impressive or definitive as the true believers think. Death is not “a foodborne illness” and eliminating all animal products is not a cure-all.

As Ben Goldacre said in Bad Science:

The most important take-home message with diet and health is that anyone who ever expresses anything with certainty is basically wrong, because the evidence for cause and effect in this area is almost always weak and circumstantial…​

 

Agree 100% that diet is a huge determinant of health, mental health and longevity.

I think the most interesting emerging research is about brain/gut connection.

I recently watched "Why Are We Getting So Fat?" where they gave a skinny unhealthy person a FMT and she put on a lot of weight. Very interesting. {{ meta.ogTitle }}

and also, Ask the Doctor where the food we eat affects gut microbiota, which in turn affect our mood. There is almost certainly a direct impact between what we eat and our mental health. Ask The Doctor - Series 1 Ep 9 Gut : ABC iview

The food we eat could affect our weight and mood through our gut bacteria.

 

@MyDarlinghurst and @HiEquity, you will like this:

Diet to boost gut health developed by Perth researchers

http://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/745512/Gut-Feeling-Cookbook-Sample.pdf

 

The neglected food pyramid....

 

We can certainly agree we are straying into areas where the science isn't completely settled yet. When I review the evidence for dairy, egg, saturated fat and cholesterol (both danger of blood cholesterol and causes of cholestorol), I see large scale observational studies showing little to no link, including the meta-analysis you posted.

Yet I also see a heap of interventional, case controlled trials, many from decades ago, that are still valid and clearly show when someone eats more saturated fat / egg / dairy / etc they get higher blood cholesterol levels - eat less and they get lower levels. And the dangers of high cholesterol levels for CAD, T2D etc are beyond dispute. There remains a level for total blood cholesterol at which virtually no-one gets CAD - our biggest killer. Such as nearly everyone in Uganda had, on top of no T2D, in the 1930s eating a traditional high fibre diet (a la Burkitt).

We all know there is considerable randomness in the population in one's genetic predisposition to have high blood cholesterol levels and therefore CAD etc. This confounds the observational studies and makes them impossible to control - hence the "no or very weak association" conclusion. Yet the interventional studies remain clear - they are what I am betting on.

None of this relies on the China Study BTW - it's just one study of many - like the rest it has its flaws as Minger points out. It also has some great information as well...

 

I am not so sure about "the dangers of high cholesterol levels for CAD, T2D etc are beyond dispute". I would say the link is very much in dispute.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/14947167/130420406/name/astheroscl egg.pdf

add this:

Advice to substitute polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats is a key component of worldwide dietary guidelines for coronary heart disease risk reduction. However, clinical benefits of the most abundant polyunsaturated ***** acid, omega 6 linoleic acid, have not been established. In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats.​

Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart ... - PubMed - NCBI

and this:

High levels of saturated fat intake had no effect on coronary disease (RR 1.03, 95% CI, 0.98 to 1.07; 20 studies). Monounsaturated (nine studies), alpha-linoleic (seven studies) and omega-6 (six studies) ***** acids were found to have no association with disease. Omega-3 ***** acids were associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.97; 16 studies). Trans ***** acids increased the incidence of coronary disease (RR 1.16, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.27; five studies). There was evidence that the numbers of events and geographical location might alter these results.
​

Association of dietary, circulating, and supplement ***** acids with coronary risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed Health - National Library of Medicine - PubMed Health

and this:

RESULTS:​

During 5-23 y of follow-up of 347,747 subjects, 11,006 developed CHD or stroke. Intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD.

CONCLUSIONS:
A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.

Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. - PubMed - NCBI

 

@HiEquity, out of interest, I started looking into all this because my flatmate had a heart attack. I was interested because he is physically active, normal range BMI and has a total cholesterol level at the low end of the normal range. He also does not drink alcohol ever and has never smoked. Basically, on a desk top assessment he has zero risk of heart attack.

I haven't really looked into inflammation as an alternate hypothesis to CVD risk but this is very interesting.

You are probably aware the CRP is a is a blood test marker for inflammation in the body. This study looked at different foods and how much CRP is found in blood after consumption. Of interest:

Sugar-sweetened soft drinks: 0.08
Refined grains: 0.08
Red meat: 0.09
Other vegetables: 0.04
Fish: 0.04

Why this is interesting is that my flatmate was drinking a glass of coke when he had his heart attack and sugar-sweetened soft drinks and red meat produce a similar amount of CRP.

Inflammatory dietary pattern and risk of depression among women

That said, inflammation should cause cholesterol levels to rise and his cholesterol is a the low end of the normal range. That's confusing.

Anyway, after the heart attack he took statins for a year until his cholesterol went below the normal range. He started to get side effects from his cholesterol being too low, so quit the statins against medical advice. Initially his cholesterol spiked but has gone back to a level lower than before the heart attack. His cholesterol is so low that his doctor asked him if he was back on the statins and when he said "no", the doctor insisted he should go back on them. It's ridiculous. If you have low cholesterol, why on earth would you take statins?

He eats plenty of saturated fats but low refined grains and not much sugar and has quit soft drinks. That's interesting considering Sugar-sweetened soft drinks and refined grains both test at 0.08 CRP.

 

I haven't got time to debate the association between serum cholesterol and CAD. Check any guidelines from any Heart / Medical Association - they all still associate CAD risk with LDL levels and total cholesterol, together with other factors. For a reason...

BTW it's not just a matter of whether something you are eating is particularly good or bad. It's also a matter of what that means you are not eating - Fiber intake and all-cause mortality in the Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea (PREDIMED) study. - PubMed - NCBI

I find it next to impossible to eat enough fibre unless my diet is almost completely whole food and plant based. I still don't see any real evidence of benefit from dairy etc. If I do I would definitely reconsider though.

 

A couple of comments on your friend (sorry to hear):
- I'm not aware that inflammation increases serum cholesterol. More that there is a significant association between CRP and cardiac events. Inflammation makes the cholesterol in your blood damage the endothelium and become atherosclerosis and hence heart attack, stroke, ED, back pain etc - depending on where in the body it occurs. Just like scarring and irritation on your skin when it becomes inflamed.
- Given the same level of inflammation, lower cholesterol levels would result in lower atherosclerosis, so it is still worth pursuing.
- Better still is a cholesterol reducing, anti-inflammatory diet - one that includes lots of fibre and resistant starch to feed our gut bacteria. ie whole foods, plant based.
- Some of us are just genetically loaded for this stuff and have to pay particular attention to it. I should know with my family history. So observational studies on people who aren't really at risk don't really comfort me... and I don't think they should comfort your friend either. Another reason I prefer the older fashioned interventional studies. Lately I can see an obsession with sample size for credibility in the academic community crowd out the clear links discovered in interventional trials.

 

I definitely agree with that.

Oh, I thought it was a discussion, not a debate. I was just trying to share information, not "prove you wrong". I am as interested in this as you are. The studies I have read definitely do not show an association between serum cholesterol and CAD.

From my experience the AMA and American Heart Association have been criticised for being slow to adjust their advice based on contemporary research.

In any case, their is almost certainly more to the story.

A recent Cambridge University analysis of 76 studies involving more than 650,000 people concluded, “The current evidence does not clearly support guidelines that [recommend]… low consumption of total saturated fats.”

Yet the American Heart Association (AHA), in its most recent dietary guidelines, held fast to the idea that we must all eat low-fat diets for optimal heart health. It’s a stance that—at the very best—is controversial, and at worst is dead wrong. As a practicing cardiologist for more than three decades, I agree with the latter—it’s dead wrong.​

The Heart Association’s Junk Science Diet

Research is still being done but inflammation may be a more important predictor of cardiovascular risk than cholesterol.

Inflammation, rather than LDL, may be a better predictor of heart disease.

Research has repeatedly shown a link between C-reactive protein (CRP), a "marker for inflammation in the body," and heart disease. And although the jury is still out, many believe that CRP may be a better indicator for developing heart disease than high "bad" cholesterol (LDL) levels.​

The Truth About Cholesterol

I will leave it at that. I just think it is important for people with low cholesterol to know they are not necessarily "safe" from having a heart attack because the AMA thinks high cholesterol causes heart attacks. Those people should look into inflammation and research if a low inflammatory diet could be beneficial for them. My opinion.

 

I didn't say that he was fine

When he suspected a heart attack I rushed him to hospital which is 8 minutes away. If he was sure it was a heart attack then I would have called an ambulance. Anyway, after taking his risk factors (0), they called the head of cardiology who ordered him to be rushed to surgery. From first symptoms to out of surgery was about 40 minutes. Consequently, there was no damage show in follow up scans and he was back at work in about a week. He has been in a follow up trial ever since (down to 12 monthly check ups) and all his blood work has been excellent.

 

I'm up for a discussion but not about whether the Earth is flat or round. So just to be clear:

I agree that CRP may may prove to be a more reliable predictor than cholesterol levels.

Again, the Cambridge sat fat study suffers from the same problem I mentioned - it has no knowledge of the genetic predisposition of the people involved to high cholesterol levels and CAD. So that can't be controlled for. Interventional studies are therefore required - sample size here is not as important as a proper control and case-controlled, interventional studies provide that. No amount of observational studies can prove cause and effect or a lack thereof so relying on them is indeed junk science.

There remains a total cholesterol level (below circa 140 (US) / 3.5 (Aus)) at which virtually no-one has CAD. It's hardly found in the western world anymore - only really found in people like the Ugandans in the 1930s. I agree above that point, the correlation / causation becomes woolly - ie it's not a linear risk track. Comparing people with 200 against people with 160 tells you nothing. But people with reported high (250-300 US) cholesterol still have 3 times the risk of those with low (150US) cholesterol. As I agreed, CRP may prove to be more important but that won't mean that reducing one's cholesterol or saturated fat consumption isn't important.

By the way, both dairy and eggs are proven to be inflammatory and raise CRP levels whereas leafy greens and other anti-oxidant containing veg etc are highly anti-inflammatory so I don't see how a focus on inflammation changes the result here....?