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healthy microbiome is associated w well-being, the reason short time frames are used is that these are intervention studies and it’s difficult to tell a person to eat a new diet for years. We know from correlation studies that refined carb intake is associated with poor well being. A short time frame can induce changes in inflammatory markers and some gut changes. For instance iirc there are profound mood changes from 10 days of very low caloric fasting
Yes? Look at the obesity epidemic. Addiction is not linear. Maybe only 10% of those who take opioids become addicted. But opioids are addicting. There’s a study on heroin users in Vietnam which show only a minority continued their addiction on returning home
https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.64.12_Suppl.38
Yes, statistically, given the rise in obesity
I'm aware of the difficulties of doing longer term studies, but that doesn't make the results any better. The proper reaction to results like these would be larger, longer, and more focused follow-up tests to ensure they're not just random noise of the kind that will inevitably occur when you apply a large number of tests on a small population.
And these lead to the mood improvements that are seen in the studies above? How?
I've heard suggestions that changes in gut bacteria can impact feelings of hunger and sure, being part of the digestive system that sounds plausible. Saying they make you happier is a lot harder to justify.
As for inflammation... if reducing inflammation has significant positive effects on depression shouldn't we have noticed that by now? Many of the most common household medicines are anti-inflammatory drugs.
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