[loceng]

If you haven't yet it's a good idea to do a microbiome stool test kit to see if there is any overgrowth of bad bacteria or yeast in your GI tract, as well an Igg food sensitivity test/food panel for 200+ foods to see if there are any common foods you're regularly or irregularly eating that may be causing inflammation, irritating your GI tract.

Also important to note, many plants have toxins in them to prevent animals eating them, and that most research studies on red meat are greatly flawed.

[tpush]

1) IgG food tests are not scientifically validated.

2) GI irritation is separate from inflammation, and many common food stuffs that may be causing irritation generally decrease inflammation.

3) Those "plant toxins" are either deactivated by processing (cooking etc.) or are in such low quantities that there's no negative effect, and most of the time even a slightly positive one.

4) "Most research studies" on red meat are not flawed.

Edit: Formatting.

[whyenot]

> many plants have toxins in them to prevent animals eating them

Almost all of the plants humans eat have been domesticated and bred to no longer produce these compounds in the parts that we eat. For other plant parts, such as fruit, being full of sugar and tasty is an adaptation because it helps with dispersing the plant's seeds. If this is something that interests you I recommend reading 'With Bitter Herbs they shall eat it: Chemical ecology and the origins of human diet and medicine.' by Timothy Johns. It was published 30 years ago and is essentially his PhD dissertation but quite readable and still one of the best resources on this subject.

[robg]

Sugar and Candida was really eye opening - it’s the fungal overgrowth driving my addiction to sweet stuff.

[Wyoming23]

> Igg food sensitivity test/food panel for 200+ foods

Last I looked into this, the science didn't really support this interpretation and in fact may have been directionally opposite.

Iirc in layman's terms, a "positive" result in that test didn't really mean "immune response" it just meant your body had the corresponding chemical to break down the food. What you had eaten in the past week could alter the results of the test and the results weren't predictive of foods that would cause digestive issues.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

What test do you recommend and why?

Last time I googled these tests I got so many results it seems like a small bullshit industry.

Gut bacteria is obviously important but I'm not sure the results of these tests are useful.

[robg]

https://www.nowleap.com/the-patented-mediator-release-test/

Importantly, should be ordered by a nutritionist and requires a blood draw. It’s got some challenges but overall helped me when paired with a restricted diet. Easy to relapse though, 2-3 months versus a lifetime of eating behaviors.

[geewee]

> and that most research studies on red meat are greatly flawed.

Care to elaborate on this? Preferably with sources.

[lambdaba]

You might be interested in this document from Credit Suisse: https://research-doc.credit-suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&...

There are more than 450 references to saturated fat in the document, but I found this phrase early on:

> Our view is that saturated fats intake is at worst neutral for CVD risks and the current 10% upper limit should be lifted.

Apologies if there was some other property of red meat that you had in mind, although I've been convinced from people commenting studies purportedly linking red meat and say, colon cancer, are just based on poor quality epidemiological data. And, while there was some sort of intuitive sense in which one could imagine the saturated fat eaten with meat/dairy products would mechanically clog arteries, I don't see anything like this with red meat. In fact, we are made of it, why would eating it have a deleterious effect? To the contrary, it seems that abstaining from meat often quite quickly causes iron deficiency/disregulation, B12 deficiency and so on.

[amanaplanacanal]

I don’t have any sources for you, but a lot of people have been revisiting saturated fat and cholesterol, and it appears that they probably aren’t as bad for you as we once thought.

[adrian_b]

While moderate amounts of saturated fats are not bad, there is no doubt that it is recommended that in the eaten fat the most abundant fatty acid must be oleic acid (i.e. the fat must contain mostly MUFA, mono-unsaturated fatty acids).

The reason is simply that oleic acid is the most abundant fatty acid in human fat. When the ingested fat consists mostly of oleic acid, it can be used as such, while when the ingested fat contains either mostly saturated fats, like many animal fats or mostly poly-unsaturated fatty acids, e.g. linoleic acid, like most cheap vegetable oils, the ingested fatty acids must be converted by the liver into the fatty acids preferred inside the human body, so that is extra work for the liver and the liver becomes less efficient at old ages. If the liver does not succeed to convert all the ingested fatty acids that should have been converted, than the composition of the fat used for various purposes in the body may be suboptimal.

Examples of foods with optimal fatty acid composition are olive oil, high-oleic sunflower oil (not classic sunflower oil, which contains mostly linoleic acid), hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, peanuts.

[lambdaba]

By this logic (which I agree with), land animal fats would best match (for beef fat: "oleic acid (36.21%), palmitic (25.67%) and stearic (20.97)").

Nuts & seeds are often high in omega-6 and are hard enough to digest that it's hard to have them as a staple. I say this as someone who was a big fan of nuts, especially almonds, but had to give them up as they triggered autoimmune symptoms. Macadamia nuts by be okay though, they are also the highest in MUFA and low in phytic acid (which causes digestive troubles and inhibits mineral absorption).

[Cthulhu_]

I do believe cooking food neutralizes most of those toxins.

Anyway, I do believe (citation needed) that food sensitivity is also correlated to gut biome, and that some sensitivities can be overcome with dietary and/or gut biome changes.

[adrian_b]

While the toxins that are proteins are usually inactivated by cooking, some of the other substances require additional steps, which were always used in traditional cooking, but not all modern cooks are aware of them.

For example, all the kinds of seeds, including all kinds of dry legumes and all kinds of nuts, require soaking in water for many hours and the water must be dumped and they must be washed before cooking, in order to remove as much of the phytic acid as possible.

The soaking in water is much more efficient if the water is acidulated, e.g. with lemon juice or with vinegar.

Another example is with the vegetables rich in oxalic acid, e.g. spinach, which must be boiled in several stages. After each stage, the boiling water must be dumped and replaced by fresh water, in order to remove as much of the oxalic acid as possible.

[MichaelCollins]

> For example, all the kinds of seeds, including all kinds of dry legumes and all kinds of nuts, require soaking in water for many hours and the water must be dumped and they must be washed before cooking, in order to remove as much of the phytic acid as possible.

Or you can just... not do any of that. Eat raw almonds and shit out phytic acid. What's the problem?

[robg]

Did the food sensitivity test (MRT) and helped a bit but also learned how immune responses can become associated with foods we eat a lot. Overall gut health and inflammation is so obvious, the engine strains with bad fuel, but very difficult to live it when pasta and pizza and burgers are staples.

Why I think Pollan’s mantra is great, he’s not absolutist about any meat. Just mix and match, which we would in nature. It’s really hard to catch a consistent meat source.

[groestl]

Can you provide a little more insight/some links on the last paragraph?

[rewgs]

IgG tests are junk and meaningless.

[rewgs]

Uh, why exactly am I being downvoted for this? ^

IgG tests are objectively bad science, used to scam people into thinking they have allergies when they don’t. IgG will basically just give you a list of what foods you’ve eaten lately. They are completely and utterly useless.

IgE tests are what matter. I have dozens of food allergies and unfortunately have had to learn more about allergies and the immune system than I ever imagined. I know what I’m talking about here.