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Comment by gabriel34 | Hacker News Reader

mental health and gut bacteria seem to be heavily correlated. Anecdotally, if I don't eat sugary "reward" food I tend to feel better. That is also why I adopted intermittent fasting. I tend to fell better mentally if I fast 24h once a week.

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> if I don't eat sugary "reward" food I tend to feel better

Within the past few years (I'm 48), eating a lot of sugary foods would leave me feeling like I was hungover the next day. Headaches were especially common 12-18 hours after lots of sugar.

You can have yeast growing in your gut too; your own personal micro-brewery.

This can be a vicious cycle, and one which I'm actively struggling to break. I feel terrible because I eat junk food, and I eat junk food because I feel terrible. "Just stop eating junk food" is easier said than done in this case, unfortunately :|

How exactly do you fast? Is it like the extreme fasting of muslims where you don't eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk, or is it like the hindu fasting where you only eat fruits and vegetables?

The best and most scientific take i've seen on this is by Dr. Jason Fung in "The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets" (https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight...)

He specifically references Muslim/Buddhist/Jewish fasts but clarifies that for the purposes of intermittent fasting, water,tea,coffee are OK.

When people refer to intermittent fasting, they generally mean a water fast which means you're not eating anything and only drinking water for your fasting session.

water and coffee only, from dinner to dinner

If I remember right, drinking coffee causes your body to lose water faster - so drinking coffee and water seem kind of contradictory.

While caffeine is a mild diuretic, it’s a myth that drinking coffee (or tea) causes dehydration – something I only learned in the last year or two. The BBC has a decent article on this topic: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140402-are-coffee-and-tea-...

I have heard about fasting being helpful... Perhaps I should seek out some vegans to one-up to motivate me. :b

fasting is bad for your gall bladder. fast with care!

thanks for the heads up, I'll be on the lookout for symptoms. I do believe though that the benefits far outweigh the risk in this case.

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