[boplicity]

It's not just the food that determines how our body reacts; it's also the microbiome, which produces a wide array of compounds that can enter our bloodstream, and possibly cross the blood-brain barrier. The microbiome is an incredible collection of microbes that is necessary for our health, and yet mostly a mystery at this point. The foods we eat have a direct impact on which microbes thrive, or don't thrive, in our gut -- which is a siginificant part of how our diet affects our gut health.

[pstuart]

Dr. Rhonda Patrick talks about diet resistant starch feeding the gut itself. Potato starch is a cheap and easy way to augment that need (YMMV).

[boplicity]

You microbiome is more akin to a forest than a farm. You can't just plant potatoes (or whatever) and assume that it will get balanced. Sometimes things like this do help, but sometimes they don't. Fertilizer makes plants grow, but it can have unintended consequences. (For example, runoff leading to bacterial blooms in a watershed.) The gut is an ecology, hence the difficulty of determining one-size-fits all fixes to a complex ecosystem.

[pstuart]

I'm well aware, thanks (YMMV was the disclaimer).

My suggestion was for a cheap and easy hack that is likely to benefit a majority of the population. Obviously the best way is to have a well-rounded diet and get all nutrition that way but we know that can be challenging for many.

Edit: in today's news feed: https://www.sciencealert.com/in-a-first-a-dietary-supplement...