Food, Fads, and Fooey
I'm up to my eyeballs in work, life, and a strong craving for significant time spent outdoors in the amazing late summer weather with my hiking boots and camera. That last part isn't happening, but I can dream. I am spending some of my off moments in research, as always. I want to do up a good article on pesticides in food (spoiler alert: not a big health concern, no matter what the media tells you), but that will take more time than I currently have to brain up on it.
So here, in no particular order, are a few of the links open in my browser tabs, for you to chase down if you're interested.
Probiotics may actually be hurtful, not helpful, following an antibiotic course. Small study, but well executed.
The second paper examined the effects of probiotics on mice and humans that were given antibiotics first. Would the probiotics repopulate the intestinal flora? In this study, 21 participants, none of whom was currently taking probiotics, were given a broad spectrum antibiotic for one week. were divided into three groups. One group got a placebo ("watch and wait.") The second got four weeks of the same 11 probiotics used in the first study. The third group received Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (aFMT), which is also called a fecal transplant. Each group was given two endoscopies and two colonoscopies. The results were unexpected:
In the group that received probiotics, the return to normal intestinal flora was significantly delayed - by months - compared to the group that did not take probiotics. The probiotics inhibited the return to the normal biome.
The aFMT recipients' had a normal biome within a few days.
Part of my personal quest to figure out how to control my psoriasis and excema (which are both flaring badly and have left me with a splotchy face and constant itching recently), I've been looking into changing diet to possibly assist with this, thinking a food allergy might be at the bottom of it. Sadly for the ease of that treatment, science doesn't seem to support it. I'll keep looking. But there are some interesting articles on the woo surrounding 'food as medicine' which we see a LOT in fad diets. There's a reason I avoid fad diets or anything that looks like them like the plague. They can actually be harmful.
naturopaths often make dietary recommendations based on applied kinesiology tests, unvalidated blood tests, or far-fetched medical explanations. A commonly prescribed, but unproven, naturopathic diet theory is the elimination of nightshades to reduce the symptoms of inflammatory diseases, especially arthritis. One such bogus test I often used in practice was an IgG food allergy test. As a first step in treatment for many conditions, such as asthma, infertility, or migraines, I would order an IgG food allergy panel and then discuss the results with patients in the context of an elimination diet treatment plan. Sometimes I would also recommend supplements such as probiotics and l-glutamine to “heal the gut.”
And for more on that particular 'disgnostic test' look at this:
Beyond the IgE mediated reactions, there are a number of possible reactions to food, which may be termed “food intolerances”. Not immune-system based, they’re more common than allergies. They include conditions like lactose intolerance, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), enzyme deficiencies, metabolic conditions, infections and other processes. It’s a catch-all term by definition.
So where does immunoglobulin G (IgG) come in? IgG molecules mediate interactions of cells with different cellular and humoral mechanisms. IgG antibodies signify exposure to products—not allergy. IgG may actually be a marker for food tolerance, not intolerance. Look, fad diets have killed people. Following a non-scientific based approach to eating doesn't make any sense to me. it's one thing to have an actual allergy to a food. It is quite another to go around claiming you do, when you don't, and then someone with a real allergy faces skepticism and eye-rolls in a restaurant.
and I realize this is rather disjointed, sorry. No time! I need more time...