But instead, I CHALLENGE YOU 🫵 to put aside emotions & watch 1 of these videos
11 m:
45 m:
1/ NOW for 🧵 on 5 MYTHS about eating Bugs!
A DISCLAIMER
I am NOT trying to take your meat
I am NOT saying meat is unhealthy
I am NOT trying to force you to eat bugs
I am NOT trying to force you to eat bugs
I am NOT trying to force you to eat bugs
I AM asking you to set aside emotion and have an open mind
Begin...
2/ MYTH #1) People only eat bugs if they need to
Entomophagy is a cultural practice
The "eww" factor is entirely psychological
Many cultures eat bugs as delicacies, EVEN when meat is also part of the diet
Norms change. Take🦞a large bug that used to be considered slave food
3/MYTH #2) Bugs aren't as nutritious as other animal foods
👉Cricket & meal worm have similar amounts of protein to beef (~20g/100g)
👉Protein in bioavailable
👉All essential amino acids
👉Rich in micronutrients, e.g. cricket has 2.5X or more iron than beef
4/ MYTH #3) Chitin in bug exoskeletons is toxic
Most human express chitinase (CHIA gene) to break down chitin
Gut microbes can produce chitinase enzyme too
Even if not all digested, it's a fiber. You poop it out, like the cellulose in a stalk of celery
5/ MYTH #4) Bugs all have anti-nutrients and toxins that are bad for you
Many bugs are low in anti-nutrients
True, there can be concerns, e.g. Thiaminase in African silkworm, exposure to mycotoxins, allergies, etc.
However... (con't)
6/ One could make a similar argument for any food
Eating improperly prepared pork has the risk of tines egg ingestion, with development of neurocysticercosis, holes in the brain, and seizures
Getting bitten by a lone star tick, and you can have a meat allergy
7/ The point here is that one shouldn't argue that a food group is bad because practices relating to the food need to be improved or people have individual sensitivities.
Do we need good safety regulations and sensible farming practices. Of course, but it's not the bug per se...
8/ MYTH #5 More bugs means less meat!
YES! THIS IS A MYTH! More bugs can actually mean more meat. Here's how...
We waste an absurd amount of food! 1.8 BILLION TONS per year, which simply generates waste and emissions
But what if this could be upcycled into animal feed?
9/ Meet the black soldier fly
They love eating decaying matter, grow insanely fast & produce high quality protein
They could not help get rid of our 1.8 Billion tons of wasted food and reduce emissions
& help treat undernutrition
& be used as high quality livestock feed
10/ In summary, I'm not trying to take your meat, or make you eat bugs
But I am asserting that it's essential we separate emotions from science
Otherwise, science is just another form of religion
11/ Now, if you have the courage, I encourage you to RT this thread in order to help normalize nuanced scientific discussion
🧵1/5): Artificial Sweeteners are Sold Simply as “Sweet without the Calories.”
🤔But while your tongue may get confused, your “Gut Sense” is harder to deceive!
Brilliant work from Diego Bohorquez featured on @hubermanlab shows HOW your body Outsmarts Sweet!
In this thread (please watch vids!), I will walk you through data from a landmark paper that I found awesome – truly, a moment when I say back and went “WOW, our bodies are AMAZING!”
At the end, find the link to the @hubermanlab episode, paper, and FULL VIDEO (11.5 min) breakdown.
cc @R_Mohr @scicommedia @gutbrains
2/5) In this study, the researchers identify “neuropod cells,” which are gastrointestinal cells with nerve-like properties that can sense sweet in the intestines with specific receptors (we will get to what these are in a moment), and then transmit the signal to the brain via the Vagus nerve. (👇jump to 0:56 if you're impatient, like me)
3/5) At this moment, it’s worth taking a detour to explain a technique called “Optogenetics” that these researchers use and that it is becoming increasingly popular to manipulate neuron (and other cell type) activity to prove causality in a system.
⚡️👀Watch clip plz⚡️
In optogenetics, you force specific cells to express channels/pumps on their membranes. The activities of these channels/pumps can be altered by exposure to different wavelengths of light.
Therefore, you can use expression patterns of these channels/pumps, along with different light wavelengths to turn “on” and “off” different cells and circuits.
It’s literally a light switch!
⚡️👀Watch clip plz⚡️
So, using green light they shut off neuropod cells and found that in so doing they could block the response in the Vagus nerve.
Otherwise put, by cutting out singling at the middleman cell – the neuropod cell – they blocked the signal from sugar or sweetener to the Vagus nerve.
This shows that neuropod cells are essential in sensing sweet in the intestines.
This thread is going to ‘wade in,’ drawing inspiration from @hubermanlab w/ @drgabriellelyon + extra information, including NEW 2024 data
🚶♂️The First 3 Will be your Warmup
🏋️♀️Then the Main Set
If you genuinely learn nothing, I’ll buy you a Wagyu Steak.
If you learn at least 3 things, consider a RT of the thread or your most ‘mind-blown’ learning
2/9) #1) We Don’t Know How Much Muscle is Optimal.
At the beginning of the podcast @drgabriellelyon points out a simple but important truth: we don’t know the ideal amount of muscle for a given individual.
Certainly, there’s heterogeneity, but how do we quantify “optimal?”
Optimal for longevity (more on that in #5) Performance? What Type and What Distribution, and how do these impact the endocrine functions of muscles?
There are many unanswered questions with respect to “Muscle-Centric Medicine,” which – I think – makes the field EXCITING!
P.S. Random fact about me, and if you wanted to see what I looked like at 13... and yet I've never been able to bump my BMI above ~22 at max... little boi. Maybe @drgabriellelyon can help, lol:
3/9) #2) Lots of Muscle ≠ Lots of good muscle.
Otherwise stated, Muscle Health is distinct from Muscle Mass. Like a A5 Kobe (delish!), muscle can be large, but ‘sick,’ infiltrated by intramuscular fat. You need sufficient mass to be optimal, but the “Functionality is more important than the Flex.”
Again, measurement and quantification can be difficult. Often, we need to look at proxies, including functional tests but also biomarkers that can be influenced by muscle and its glucose-sink (see 3#!) and endocrine functions.
Anorexia is a devastating condition that increases risk of death >5X and is associated w/ high rates of relapse
There is desperate need for more effective treatment options
3/10) Common knowledge posits patients w/ anorexia should be discouraged from practicing food group restriction
But anorexia can be framed metabo-psychiatric condition that may benefit from treatment w/ metabolic health interventions w/ neuromodulatory properties, i.e. #ketodiet
2/ In this study, normal-weight participants were exposed to EITHER a high-fat/high-sugar snack OR a low-fat/low-sugar snack for 8 weeks in addition to their regular diet. The snacks were to be consumed 2x per day and were isocaloric.
3/ After the intervention, they first tested fat & sugar preferences & found, compared to baseline:
High Fat-Sugar intervention ⬇️ wanting for lowest but also highest fat food
Snacking intervention in general (both high-fat- sugar & low fat-sugar) ⬇️wanting for low sugar food
🚨Carbohydrate insulin model “dead,” OR is it misunderstood again? 🤥
1/ Doctor Tweeted “that the carbohydrate-insulin theory is completely dead” ☠️⚰️
I recently watch the interview with that doctor, and it was surprising the degree to which s/he got the facts wrong…
2/ The CIM does posit that a high glycemic load diet drives high insulin to glucagon ratio state… as a result energy available in the bloodstream is driven downwards in the late postprandial phase leading to “hormonal, hunger” & overeating…
3/ Doc said: “This whole process of fattening all the way down the line, you’ve actually got MORE fuel in your bloodstream… than someone who is not getting fatter.” ... the “decrease EA in the blood "has never been documented because it’s not really there!” Thus, CIM is dead!