Friday Favorites: How Useful Is Personalized Nutrition?

@Joseph1NJ says:

It can be very frustrating understandably. This channel has no shortage of videos on the subject, but my suggestion would be to eat a fair amount of protein, i.e., maybe increase what you’re eating now, animal sources unnecessary, and engage in some resistance exercise, thereby stimulating and encouraging muscle growth and strength, which stimulates bone strength. And yes it’s true thin women tend to suffer more from osteoporosis for the obvious reason, that is, not enough muscle stimulation. I’m certain if you asked your doctor that you prefer plant sources of protein he or she would say that’s fine as long as you’re getting more. If not, you might want to consider a new doctor.

How much protein is enough? That’s a rabbit hole I’d prefer not to go down. I would say up to 30% of total calories is not unreasonable.

@pmw3839 says:

@ I go back and forth.

@mb7626 says:

It’s funny because it often seems like there are different tiers or strata of information guiding particular decisions, sometimes the more obvious guidelines are a bit facile or overly cautious. Like potassium has benefits for blood pressure, and this also benefits kidney function, but compromised kidney function can make it harder to filter electrolytes. So do we avoid potassium if we have kidney dysfunction, or do we (cautiously) consider the opposite? People only paying attention to one ‘strata’ of information might say to avoid it flat out, while a more careful investigation of the evidence *might* result in one considering to approach it cautiously.

For me a recent one is oxalates. I’ve never had kidney stones but the question is whether high amounts of dietary oxalates are problematic. Common sense advice is that it’s better to avoid it, but ‘deeper’ strata of investigation into the topic seems to suggest that dietary animal proteins acidifying the urinary environment, increasing oxalate uptake via differences in the gut, and general dehydration, are more significant factors in kidney stone formation. But considering how painful kidney stones apparently are, maybe the more cautious approach makes sense? This would be especially true if you’ve dealt with them in the past. Or do you take supplemental citrate as prophylaxis? all of the above?

There’s a lot in dietary guidance that seems to have long standing consensus with no real challenges, but that’s nutrition in bold outline: things like eat mostly plants, eat a varied diet, avoid excess calorie consumption, etc. Controversy surrounding claims like these are largely contrarianism. But with more narrow and specific topics, it’s hard to arrive at simple conclusions, biological interactions or dynamics are complex, so we probably have to weigh different orders or evidence and personal priorities.