I've just finished reading Prof. Tim Spector's "The Diet Myth". The book's title is a little hyperbolic, but it works through all the major food groups and how we eat and talks about both the historic research and diet fads of the past (like Ansel Keys research that sparked the obsession with low fat foods) and how all these different foodstuffs tie into our gut bacteria, which in turn affects us.
Tim's "thing" is the human biome, but I didn't read it as him touting it as a cureall, but as something that is more important than almost all of us are aware, and which has been seriously neglected to the point that it's having an impact on many aspects of our health. He's also pretty open that a lot of this is still very much up in the air at the moment, and lots more study is needed to really understand many of the effects. He also seems pretty sceptical of the medicallisation and the obsession with isolating one factor and packaging it up as a supplement or magic pill that will solve your health issues.
Look up nutritionfacts.org and read/view it with a generous pinch of salt. A few years ago it took me half a year to switch to a mostly WFPB diet advertised there and I had no issues whatsoever. My gut is now more resilient, I remember having problems with bloating and/or diarrhea if I ate just a bit more fiber some days.
> why aren't we focusing on making healthier decisions for our diet, exercise, and mental well being?
The answers are there, but cognitive dissonance prevents us from recognizing or accepting them.
It was already mentioned in other threads, but you can find valuable insights in the AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet.
Its main principle is that you first eliminate as many foods as possible that are known to cause issues for people (e.g. due to inflammation, autoimmune response) and then you slowly introduce more foods and see how your body reacts.
I recently started following a similar approach in order to try to address some health issues and also to learn more about my body. In my case I'm leaning more towards the carnivore diet with occasional additions of foods allowed in AIP.
In case anyone is curious about the carnivore diet, I found these YouTube channels to contain good content on this topic: KenDBerryMD, Paul Saladino (CarnivoreMD).
I also enjoyed this discussion: https://youtu.be/Xgokvp5bfNg
It's easy to stumble upon conflicting information when it comes to nutrition, but I find that just being exposed to more options (rather than eating what everyone eats by default) can give you an opportunity to make the decisions that make sense to you.
I feel like we see more and more gut related issues due to depression & depression's little cousin anxiety. IBS for example manifests itself from anxiety and can also be a gut microbiome imbalance.
If there are more and more studies around gut health being a sort-of panacea of mental & physical health, why aren't we focusing on making healthier decisions for our diet, exercise, and mental well being?
It's no surprise that many people(myself included) in our always connected world suffer with crippling anxiety from over stimulation/shock & awe news/comparison to others/overwork/etc. That anxiety manifests in your gut as digestive issues. Those digestive issues make you less likely to exercise for long periods of time or even at all.
In my opinion, it's four main things. Increase sleep, improve/wide ranging diet, moderate exercise, and reduced stress. There are definitely hacks like fiber, yogurt, sauerkraut, and more that people swear by, but I am genuinely curious if a study had tracked some of these variables to see if they improve gut microbiomes.