Advancing human gut microbiota research by considering gut transit time (2023)

https://gut.bmj.com/content/72/1/180

by mikhael • 3 months ago

102 78 3 months ago

gut.bmj.com

devolving-dev• 3 months ago

I wonder what this means for GLP 1 drugs that slow digestion.

andreareina• 3 months ago

Actual outcome data shows that they're a net benefit, and it's not even close.

hhh• 3 months ago

And if I flip flop between both?

nacozarina• 3 months ago

stress-induced

nobody dumps during their first two days of boot camp

flossly9• 3 months ago

I did quite some experimenting with this.

Fruit moves fastest and green leaves. Meat, cheese, oil and fats slowest.

But we often eat combinations: and the slowest component of your food determines the speed of the whole.

Also: it's a one lane road and "over taking" is not possible.

So, eating a fast moving meal after a slow moving meal results in the fast mover getting stuck behind the slow mover.

Hence I start my day without and slow food (only fruit, herbs, green leaves, spices, ginger => usually a smoothy); and end the day with slow food (oily food, nuts, seeds, beans; usually combined with green leaves as we need a lot green leaves).

YMMV

lordgrenville• 3 months ago

n=1

But interesting nonetheless, thanks for sharing your findings.

flossly9• 3 months ago

I have a small following of people how also saw improvements doing this.

Then, I did not come up with this myself, but found a lot of anecdotals in this direction.

And... I comment on a real science piece that seems to be making similar claims.

mrroryflint• 3 months ago

There have been alternative (often mad) health proponents who have insisted upon only eating fruit in the morning for years - similar(ish) reasons. I think there is probably something to it.

konradb• 3 months ago

I remember this being a thing in some Tony Robbins book!

oulipo2• 3 months ago

I mean the most obvious reason is fibers

sublinear2• 3 months ago

Whole fruit also has a lower glycemic index due to the fiber. This slow release of sugar helps reduce insulin resistance and balance out hormone response in general.

Hormonal imbalance is severely underrated as a root cause of common mental health issues like anxiety, depression, etc.

Having fruit in the morning is a little boost without the guilt. Adding in some light exercise, like walking, also helps prime the day. It even gets easier to wake up early for all this the more regularly it's done. It's one big reinforcement cycle for healthy habits.

altmanaltman2• 3 months ago

What do you mean, the human stomach is absolutely not a "one line road", your comments lacks the basic biological understanding. What you're describing is a good generic diet and maybe that's why it feels good but please learn a bit more about the stuff you are expetimenting on.

flossly9• 3 months ago

I did not mention stomach. I meant the GI-tract as a whole.

I've used food coloring and indigestibles (like corn kernels) to do experiments on whether meals can "overtake" or "merge" or "join" with other meals into poops.

x______________• 3 months ago

Interesting.

A great opportunity to add "YMMV"

flossly9• 3 months ago

Did it!

Ballas• 3 months ago

Your Movements May Vary?

anonu• 3 months ago

YBMMV

andsoitis• 3 months ago

Have you found that coffee speed things up?

sublinear2• 3 months ago

I have, but I think any stimulant would do similar. I no longer smoke, but that did it too.

flossly9• 3 months ago

I cannot stand the taste coffee. So no data from my side.

boring-human• 3 months ago

I don't disagree with your findings, but here's the model I use:

- Fiber: ^

- Dairy: v

- Coffee: ^^

- NSAIDs: vv

- Ice cream splurges: vvv

arethuza• 3 months ago

My breakfast routine for ~40 years has been coffee, muesli, coffee, yoghurt, coffee, fresh fruit all served with plenty coffee.

SideburnsOfDoom• 3 months ago

I will add an anecdote that from observation, two people on the same diet over long periods can have significantly different poop frequencies, and differing regularity.

YMMV. It's not just determined by the food intakes, there are individual factors.

At a guess, these individual factors start with 1) genetic component to reactions to substances such as lactose and to caffeine. 2) Gut microbiome.

In other words, saying "change diet and you can change the poop schedule" is true, but "with this diet you will definitely get this schedule" is not.

CTDOCodebases• 3 months ago

Eating bitter greens can cause the body to secrete more bile and that speeds up fat digestion.

Bender• 3 months ago

I use TUDCA for that though it can make me gassy if I take too much.

calf• 3 months ago

Just to be clear I thought the typical advice has been fiber -> protein -> carbs, for blood sugar reasons, you're saying to frontload fiber/carbs & backload proteins for easier digestion? That is interesting, I wonder what studies there are on this.

flossly9• 3 months ago

My reason is I dont want the fast moving food to get stuck behind the slow moving food.

Another reason I do it like this: I get no after diner dip from fast moving food. Slow moving food makes me crash a little, and I prefer to experience that in the evenings.

I did also experiments with fruit (and leaves) only diets. No crashes at all. Nice! But I did crave savory, chewy food a lot.

paul7986• 3 months ago

For me i drink close to a gallon of water a day and that truly cleans me out daily.

vogelke• 3 months ago

It's a one lane road and "over taking" is not possible.

Best poop-related comment I've seen.

alpineman• 3 months ago

Or just don't eat meat and cheese at all

mcv• 3 months ago

Better for the environment too.

flossly9• 3 months ago

I've not for the last 12 years. But fake meats/dairies have a very similar macro profile, so I expect them to digest similarly.

I'll not try though, as I'm vegan for ethical reasons.

gchamonlive2• 3 months ago

Isn't slow food going through your body during sleep something that'll impact your sleep quality?

When you wake up you are basically fasting so your body is ready to take a hit. Slow food will go through your body faster when you eat it in the first half of your day.

flossly9• 3 months ago

I found the same food goes about as fast (on a rather empty GI tract) no matter when eaten.

Slow food takes about 24h for me (so even when eaten early).

senectus1• 3 months ago

yeah my mileage is i eat fruit and i get cramps and the squirts for the next two days.

as I've gotten older my ability to consume fruit, onions, garlic and most dairy (and coffee :-( ) has been taken away from me. its really a miserable experience for someone that enjoys eating new and interesting things all the time.

asplake• 3 months ago

IANAD, but sounds like IBS or similar, not necessarily age-related, and potentially treatable.

g8oz• 3 months ago

Look into the low FODMAP diet.

wantoncl• 3 months ago

Also: it's a one lane road and "over taking" is not possible.

I've eaten some hamburgers at Krystal's that definitely overtook whatever else was in front. Some folks have had the same or similar effect from White Castle, although I never have. Chipotle on occasion moves things along rather briskly too. No fruit or green leaves in any of them.

It may be that it's not a digestion thing, but some other factor they have that accelerates the process.

Schmerika• 3 months ago

Not a doctor but I know that some foods, in some guts, at some times can trigger a 'quick-release valve' of sorts. You're not digesting properly when that happens.

cess11• 3 months ago

https://gut.bmj.com/content/72/1/180

The study. It basically says that this is something one perhaps should consider in clinical settings and that the speed of fecal matter might be a worthwhile direction for future inquiry.

"Altogether, a better understanding of the complex, bidirectional interactions between the gut microbiota and transit time is required to better understand gut microbiome variations in health and disease."

It does not say 'this is a sign of health and that is not'.

beardyw• 3 months ago

If the writer ingested a lot, very little came out.

sph• 3 months ago

I guess with my IBS I should be the healthiest person around.

adt• 3 months ago

Akshually, IBS-D is the least common form of IBS.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3865067/

jonatron• 3 months ago

I'm surprised there's no mention of hot drinks in the morning.

feverzsj• 3 months ago

Eat lots of fibers and water, and you'll poop like a cow.

iammjm• 3 months ago

... Would that be good? I mean that soft flat pancake thing they produce. My general approach so far was to aim fora not too soft, not too hard kind of poop. Like a one that slides out of you with minimal wiping needed afterward. Like what would be the gold standard for poop consistency?

pawelduda• 3 months ago

Sooo.... Another reason to drink coffee/yerba mate? Although the latter also supposedly stimulates release of GLP1, which slows down "the release"

fibermaxxx• 3 months ago

More fiber, more plants. I know individuals that eat "only vegetable on the burger" Oats, grits, or smoothie for early day Mine:Fruit smoothie with oats Starches, leafy greens, for midday Mine:roasted sweet potato on a salad Legumes and tree nuts for dinna Mine:Chickpea sauce over roasted veggies with pasta, or cashews.

The goal is more than 13 plants a day and your movement will be very consistent

iszomer2• 3 months ago

Consumption of dairy and products are a relatively fast and painful solution for personal system purges within 30m but entirely depends on how processed they are.

DaedalusII• 3 months ago

you may evaluate the concept of a milk enema, dramatic and rapid defecation ensues in comparison to a saline enema

iszomer2• 3 months ago

At that point it’s less of an ‘enema’ and more like udder chaos.

phyzix5761• 3 months ago

I wonder how Ozempic affects this because it slows down gastric emptying.

Grp1• 3 months ago

this post needs an enema

bregma• 3 months ago

I find I can't keep it down for more than a few minutes. I guess I can eat all the poop I want and stay healthy then?

dustractor• 3 months ago

This is why I suspect that GLP-1 agonist medications have the potential to cause a cascade of negative consequences for the health of some people. One of the mechanisms is slowed gastric emptying which leads to decreased motility of the small intestine as a side effect. They do tell people to drink more water to counteract this. It just seems like trading one set of problems for another so hopefully doctor and patient will carefully weigh the benefits versus the risks. We shall see.

the_real_cher• 3 months ago

I got food poisoning on a GLP-1 and the slowed gastric emptying made it a hellish 5 days.

Qem• 3 months ago

I wonder if this explains in part the purported health benefits from cofee. One thing people claim makes hard to quit cofee habit it's that they can't take a shit in the morning anymore.

deepsun• 3 months ago

"Linked" not "caused". So it may be that someone with Parkinson's just happen to have slower rates.

fny2• 3 months ago

Headline is megaclickbait. The research is about how healthier gut microbiomes correlate with improved pooping and nothing about how it impacts your health.

mplanchard3• 3 months ago

From the article’s “key takeaways”:

By considering interindividual and intraindividual differences in transit time in human studies, diet–microbiota interactions and disease-related microbiome signatures may be better elucidated.

There is also an entire section entitled “The role of gut transit time in health and disease”

fny2• 3 months ago

None of this is summarized in the posted article. It's in the research paper which I didn't read because the article seemed like fluff.

mplanchard3• 3 months ago

The article is open access, I don’t see any reason to prefer the dumbed-down narrative summary: https://gut.bmj.com/content/72/1/180

fellowniusmonk• 3 months ago

I've been using 1/4cup ground hulled barley and 20-32oz of greek yogurt, with a bit of craisins and pecans as my base for the last several years, my gut now chews through everything and output is consistent and homogeneous.

You gotta lay down a fermentation base.

Advancing human gut microbiota research by considering gut transit time (2023)

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