Ramblings of an old Doc

 

This is a pretty revolutionary study out of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Note: The study only tracked blood sugar levels vs. meal types in 800 people continuously for one week and defined a “good diet” as one which produced steady sugar levels as opposed to a “bad diet” as one which produced elevated levels, because elevated levels are tied to diabetes, obesity and the metabolic syndrome.

They also analyzed gut bacteria types believed to play a role in health and disease.

All foods were recorded as well as sleep and physical activity. So, the researchers analyzed more than 46,000 meals, and interesting results were found:

“The blood sugar levels of a large number of the participants rose sharply after they consumed a standardized glucose meal. In many others, blood glucose levels rose sharply after they ate white bread, but not after eating glucose.” – Isr. 21c

The full paper is here, but you have to pay for the paper (Elsevier Pub.), but you can learn lots at the Personal Nutrition Project’s website here.

You can watch an animation about the research here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryc5M3Ciytg&feature=youtu.be

So…the meal type actually mattered less than the bacteria which lived in the gut.

It turns out that disease prevention might be more dependent on the bacteria and how they interact with the meal types, rather than the meal types themselves, throwing “standardized diets” out the window unless tested against the bacterial population.

The more interesting question might be how these different populations come about in people and what an optimal population might be. Also, which diseases appear to be influenced by these different populations, and how different genetics (human) interact with these populations of gut bacteria.

We’re at the threshold of truly individual treatment, why not individual prevention of the need for treatment to begin with? After all, we all believe that individual behavior in browsing affects computer infection rates, right? Why not the same for people?

Sources:

http://newsite.personalnutrition.org/WebSite/Home.aspx

http://www.israel21c.org/diet-study-overturns-all-we-know-about-healthy-eating/


Comments
on Nov 22, 2015

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

More and more research is revealing the importance of gut bacteria in many things.

One of the downsides of using antibiotics is that it kills all the gut bacteria indiscriminately and we are only learning now what costs that might be bringing with it. Perhaps at some point there will be guides of what to eat or take after using antibiotics to bring some of that gut bacteria back in ideal ratios.

on Nov 22, 2015

Not just a question of broad vs. narrow spectrum (vs. unnecessary antibiotics in many cases), but of artificial sweeteners, all sorts of things in our diets and environment.

Time long overdue to look at things in non-litigious ways, but rather in ways designed to generate positive results...win-win outcomes.

on Nov 22, 2015

DrJBHL

Time long overdue to look at things in non-litigious ways, but rather in ways designed to generate positive results...win-win outcomes.

Good luck with that.