
The Future of Dieting Is Personalized Algorithms Based on Your Gut Bacteria - heydenberk
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/10/future-of-dieting-is-personalized-algorithms.html
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johndavi
The New Yorker had solid overview -- i.e., "how much we know about how little
we know" \-- of the gut microbiome in 2012:
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/germs-are-
us](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/germs-are-us)

The calories-in, calories-out crowd isn't wrong thermodynamically speaking (I
am fairly certain!), but an important component of that is how many calories
are being taken-up by bacteria and how many are passed through without being
utilized. If my gut sucks up 20% more calories from the same food as someone
else, I'm going to have a harder time managing my weight than he/she will...
even if we eat and 'move' at precisely the same amounts.

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Consultant32452
While this research is interesting I don't know that it will ultimately be all
that valuable to the average person in the real world. For the average person
who just wants to lose some weight, we all know that we need to consume fewer
calories. And if we still don't lose weight we need to consume fewer calories
still. It's not that complicated. The core problem is actually going through
with it and sticking to your reduced calorie intake. Getting your gut bacteria
algorithm worked out for you isn't going to matter if you're still sneaking in
the soda and Snickers as extra calories. I think the only real-world
beneficiaries of this research will be people on the far end of the spectrum
of health/body hacking like body builders or world class athletes. I suppose
also people who are hospitalized for obesity related issues, but those are a
small fraction of the population.

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johndavi
Changes in the gut could be quite profound -- well beyond caloric uptake. It's
quite likely that gut bacteria influences mood and other things we commonly
attribute solely to the brain. If that's the case who knows the impact gut
biome changes could make on desire, "willpower," adherence to a diet, the
allure of "soda and Snickers" compared to other foods.

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VeejayRampay
Candid question : Is gut bacteria (in terms of variety, strains, etc) affected
by diet? Foods like kefir or some yogurts are known to influence the bacterial
fauna, so just wondering.

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Mz
It is a great deal more complicated than that. Taking antibiotics kills gut
bacteria. Doctors almost never tell you that needs to be actively
counteracted. I have been told (by a phd chemist) that coconut oil does good
things for gut flora. People with certain conditions where they get prescribed
antibiotics routinely see higher than average incidences of c. diff
infections, which are sometimes resolved by surgically removing a portion of
the colon.

Another comment suggested we have more obesity due to less gut microbe
diversity caused by eating more processed foods. It can readily believe that
is true, but I would suggest that use of antibiotics may play an unrecognized
or underrecognized role.

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toomuchtodo
You mention coconut oil does good things for gut flora. In ketogenic diets,
it's recommend to take MCT oil with your meals (as it's supposedly thermogenic
and helps burn fat specifically). MCT oil and coconut oil are extremely
similar chemically. I'm wonder if coconut and MCT oil are modifying gut
bacteria composition, contributing to bacteria than tends towards leaner body
composition.

EDIT: hot damn! MCT oil has protectant qualities for both the liver and the
intestines:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12560783/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12560783/)

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Mz
MCT oil just means medium chain triglycerides, something coconut oil is high
in. MCTs were historically prescribed for certain medical conditions, like
cancers impacting the gut, because they can be absorbed directly without being
broken down, thus the body expends less energy and effort on them. In fact,
you can supplement MCT oil topically, by slathering it on your skin. So if
your gut is all kinds of messed up, you can use it topically instead of
orally.

I have a condition where doctors still sometimes recommend MCT oil. It is one
of the more established non drug treatments. My experience is that it is
better tolerated if your gut does not work right, presumably because you
basically absorb it instead of digesting it.

It also has natural antibiotic properties. It appears to also move metals at
low rates, which can be problematic for some people, thus placing limits on
how much they can take it.

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chrismealy
Do people who don't eat sugar ever have a problem with being overweight? I
stopped eating sugar 18 months ago to help my sinuses (it worked), and as a
side effect lost about 30 pounds. Basically my appetite shrunk. I wasn't even
trying to lose weight, it just happened.

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platz
how do you "not eat sugar"? sugars are in every food...

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pa5tabear
The keto (short for ketogenic) diet is a popular name for this. You only eat
proteins and fats as your macronutrients (with room for 20g or less of net
carbs per day). You have to consciously choose to avoid carbohydrates, which
can be difficult. But the energy/mood stability and quick weight loss are
undeniable positive results.

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eivarv
I keep hearing its adherents claim various benefits of "keto": is there any
credible sources (i.e. research) that back these claims up?

For instance, what about glucose for mental performance?

No offence, but my current (admittedly limited) understanding of the subject
leads me to mentally file it under "dubious", along with "no-fap" and such.

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bblough
I don't want to flood you with a ton of studies (I have lots more bookmarked),
but here are several:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15148063](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15148063)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23155696](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23155696)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23110922](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23110922)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22673594](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22673594)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20101008](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20101008)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19099589](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19099589)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17447017](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17447017)

As for glucose, it can be created by the liver as needed using a process
called gluconeogenesis -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis)

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eivarv
Thanks for the links!

I'll be sure to look into these.

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jokoon
I even wonder if there could be some simple questionnaire about their parents
heredity directly suggesting people to eat whatever could help their gut
bacteria.

Also I've read that the gut bacteria is not very well understood (hard to
reproduce in a lab).

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sandGorgon
anybody know what affordable glucose-monitoring devices can measure glucose
responses at 5 minute intervals ? Would love to get my hands on one of those
to test personal hypotheses

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guard-of-terra
What if it recommends me food that I don't like? What if cafeteria only offers
non-compliant food on some days? What if I go to a party? What if I eat out
with other people?

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ksk
"We all know the friend who eats what they want and is thin" \- No, we don't.
You can turn fat pretty much any person who is not suffering from serious
metabolic disorders. If you think you've found an outlier who can eat, pick a
random number here.. 6000 calories every day and still stay thin then you've
probably found a genetic freak. Certainly such a person should be examined to
see what genetic variations allow them to do that.

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slavik81
The trick to eating whatever you want is not wanting all that much.

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abledon
Sidenote: This was figured out ~4000 years in the PAST according to
Ayurveda(edit: and TCM as the cultures were sharing information), its
documented in Sanskrit texts which themselves were recorded after only
millennia of oral tradition

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TTPrograms
Uh, source? I can't imagine anyone was too preoccupied with dieting 4000 years
ago.

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cynoclast
The future of dieting is burning more calories than you consume. Just like it
has always been.

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swagv
Someone currently inventing the smart toilet will soon rule them all.

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zzalpha
Well that doesn't make sense... calories in, calories out, thermodynamics,
it's as simple as that, right?!?

Edit: Seems I've inadvertently demonstrated Poe's Law...

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skxjf29582
No one is overweight/obese because of gut bacteria. There may be marginal
effects, but it's a bit like optimizing the tires on a soccer mom's mini-van.

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Lawtonfogle
Marginal effects can add up quite quickly over a lifetime.

Take someone 100 pounds overweight. That is 350000 Kcal more consumption in
their lifetime than they should've had. Let's spread that over 10 years, or
35000 Kcal a year. That works out to about a 100 Kcal difference per day. Over
20 years, it would be about 50 Kcal.

Now, they could've made different choices, and there are some people who stay
a healthy weight by making different choices. But I would not dismiss small
changes as being irrelevant because given the time scale, those changes do add
up.

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im3w1l
It doesn't work quite like that, because there is a negative feedback loop.
When you increase in weight your metabolism goes up. If you are at a steady
weight and increase your consumption by 50 kcal a day, you will reach a new
steady weight where your metabolism is 50 kcal more.

50 kcal extra a day means steady state weight increases by about 3 pounds or
1.5 kg.

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rndmind
I misread this as " The Future of Dating ... "

