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#food#slow#health#more#gut#fruit#coffee#eat#fiber#poop

Discussion (78 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

flossly•2 days 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

gchamonlive•2 days 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.

mrroryflint•2 days 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.
sublinear•2 days 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.

konradb•2 days ago
I remember this being a thing in some Tony Robbins book!
oulipo2•2 days ago
I mean the most obvious reason is fibers
boring-human•2 days 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•2 days ago
My breakfast routine for ~40 years has been coffee, muesli, coffee, yoghurt, coffee, fresh fruit all served with plenty coffee.
x______________•2 days ago
Interesting.

A great opportunity to add "YMMV"

Ballas•2 days ago
Your Movements May Vary?
anonu•2 days ago
YBMMV
flossly•2 days ago
Did it!
CTDOCodebases•2 days ago
Eating bitter greens can cause the body to secrete more bile and that speeds up fat digestion.
andsoitis•2 days ago
Have you found that coffee speed things up?
sublinear•2 days ago
I have, but I think any stimulant would do similar. I no longer smoke, but that did it too.
lordgrenville•2 days ago
n=1

But interesting nonetheless, thanks for sharing your findings.

flossly•2 days 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.

paul7986•2 days ago
For me i drink close to a gallon of water a day and that truly cleans me out daily.
calf•2 days 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.
vogelke•2 days ago
> It's a one lane road and "over taking" is not possible.

Best poop-related comment I've seen.

altmanaltman•2 days 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.
flossly•2 days 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.

jahller•2 days ago
that's the most insane thing i read today. kudos to your curiosity
SideburnsOfDoom•2 days 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.

alpineman•2 days ago
Or just don't eat meat and cheese at all
dustractor•2 days 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•2 days ago
I got food poisoning on a GLP-1 and the slowed gastric emptying made it a hellish 5 days.
sph•2 days ago
I guess with my IBS I should be the healthiest person around.
mplanchard•2 days 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
jonatron•2 days ago
I'm surprised there's no mention of hot drinks in the morning.
iszomer•2 days 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.
fibermaxxx•2 days 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

deepsun•2 days ago
"Linked" not "caused". So it may be that someone with Parkinson's just happen to have slower rates.
cess11•2 days 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'.

Qem•2 days 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.
devolving-dev•2 days ago
I wonder what this means for GLP 1 drugs that slow digestion.
andreareina•2 days ago
Actual outcome data shows that they're a net benefit, and it's not even close.
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phyzix5761•2 days ago
I wonder how Ozempic affects this because it slows down gastric emptying.
hhh•2 days ago
And if I flip flop between both?
beardyw•2 days ago
If the writer ingested a lot, very little came out.
fellowniusmonk•1 day 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.

pawelduda•2 days ago
Sooo.... Another reason to drink coffee/yerba mate? Although the latter also supposedly stimulates release of GLP1, which slows down "the release"
feverzsj•2 days ago
Eat lots of fibers and water, and you'll poop like a cow.
Grp1•2 days ago
this post needs an enema
bregma•2 days 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?
sans_souse•2 days ago
No shit
delis-thumbs-7e•2 days ago
In that case you really should go and see a doctor ASAP.
fny•2 days ago
Headline is megaclickbait. The research is about how healthier gut microbiomes correlate with improved pooping and nothing about how it impacts your health.
mplanchard•2 days 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”

fny•2 days 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.
mplanchard•1 day ago
Seems presumptuous to make assertions about what’s in the research if you haven’t read it
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