Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, study suggests

Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by lambdaba on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @08:54AM (#35150688)

So do I... There is a (literally) visceral feeling you get when eliminating plants (and frankly, even most supplements except minerals) that the gut is finally at rest / not disturbed, it becomes impossible to ignore that our digestive apparatus is primarily adapted for eating meat. Judging from the many anecdotes I've come across, breakdown of the gut barrier brought about / contributed by most plants is at the root of many diseases. Not the sole cause, I think gut microbiome disruption plays a big part in the bad effects from plants, but that's another story and there doesn't seem to be a solution for that yet (not enough to just chug copious amounts of probiotics).

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @09:20AM (#35151001)

Would you say that cows are adapted for eating plants? Because boy do those animals fart, even just standing there in a field eating grass. I don't know what a gut "at rest" means, but I would suggest that it's not necessarily indicative of a diet that you're adapted to. In fact it seems like it's more of a psychological thing than anything else.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by lambdaba on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @09:49AM (#35151467)

Why would you dismiss it as "psychological" while admitting that you don't know what it means? Have you ever fasted? It feels like that.

Re: cows. They have a rumen. And they are aided by bacteria to convert the plant matter into usable energy.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @09:55AM (#35151571)

Because it seems like the sort of thing something would say when they want to observe a change to justify a choice.

And yes, cows are specifically adapted to consume plants and their guts are noisy. I'm using this as an example that just because you sensed a quieting in your intestines it doesn't mean it's positive. I'm admitting I don't know what it means and provided an example where a loud gut is indicative of adaptation, but you seem to be under the impression a quiet gut is a good thing. If you're using fasting as the comparison that seems to indicate you aren't digesting much at all, and I don't know how that's positive if your intestines are full.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by lambdaba on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:04AM (#35151721)

I'm doing this for health reasons (as are hundreds of thousands of others, see "carnivore diet" or "zerocarb"). I was just sharing an observation I had because prior to eating this way I always had gut issues.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:11AM (#35151816)

In that case I honestly hope that you have luck with this diet. But keep in mind that millions of people in the 90's would have used health reasons as the reason they are cutting out animal fats and switching to margarine. It's hard to tell what's a harmful diet fad until it's over.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by lambdaba on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:17AM (#35151891)

It's the only thing that seems to work for certain autoimmune conditions. It's not a fad.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:19AM (#35151935)

In that case it's not, that's a specialized diet, much like cutting out peanut butter for someone allergic to peanuts is a specialized diet. It doesn't mean it's generally biologically advantageous and that everyone should cut out peanut butter, it means it's what your body needs, and in that case it makes perfect sense.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by jononomo on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:00AM (#35151659)

One thing you'll notice if you adopt a carnivore diet is that you completely stop farting.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @10:17AM (#35151910)

If you explain to my why it is somehow biologically advantageous that we don't fart I'll consider that as a pro of some sort. Because, as I've been pointing out, cows are super specialized to consume plants and they fart, so farting isn't indicative of them eating something incorrect, but simply part of the biological process of them consuming plant matter. It doesn't mean they should switch to a meat diet.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by jononomo on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @01:34PM (#35155211)

This is a common response that I get. People will just tell me that they enjoy farting and that, in fact, farting is wonderful.

Also, they have an attitude that indicates they are absolutely certain that they are correct.

They'll probably tell me next that they enjoy having diabetes.

Anyone can try this diet for 90 days and transform their health for the better (even if they think they are already in top shape), yet almost everyone has a massive mental block and can't even conceive of trying it. It's a bizarre situation.

But keep farting and living with joint pain for all I care.

The guy whose comment this is in response to is arguing that he should fart because cows fart without considering the fact that he is not a cow. It is not worth my time to engage any further, but I will leave this comment here in case there are some genuinely curious onlookers.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @03:23PM (#35157019)

Well, you've now gone to ad hominem, even though you're arguing that not only do your farts not stink, they don't exist. The arbitrary decision that farting is bad (though we know that isn't the case as other animals eating their native diet fart), which you need to prove, somehow means that because you claim you don't fart your diet must be good. Ultimately you're making the argument we are obligate carnivores when you have no proof of that outside of anecdotes of "joint pain" and "farts".

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by jononomo on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @06:40PM (#35160173)

I don't have time to convince you. Enjoy farting.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by shlant on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @08:58AM (#35150739)

> breakdown of the gut barrier brought about / contributed by most plants is at the root of many diseases

And yet we have a unending amount of evidence that consuming plants results in better health outcomes...

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by lambdaba on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @09:50AM (#35151491)

This is discussing a strict carnivore (meat ONLY) diet. I'm not aware of such a comparison.

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Re:Mediterranean diet may lower dementia risk by a quarter, ... by shlant on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @12:59AM (#35164083)

what comparison? If what you are saying is true - that eating plants = bad gut health = bad health outcomes - then we would see that in the data but instead we see the opposite.

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