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Comment by klipt | Hacker News Reader

> "Younger carriers of the variation experience negative consequences due to their different type of sugar absorption. For them, consuming sugar causes diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. Our guess is that as they age, their gut bacteria gradually get used to sugar and learn how to convert it into energy"

Sounds basically like lactose intolerance, but to sucrose instead of lactose.

Which raises the question, if gut bacteria can solve the symptoms, why don't we have probiotics to solve lactose intolerance too?

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We don't have probiotics but you can buy the lactase enzyme in pills and take it with lactose containing foods and avoid symptoms (as long as you dose right and eat quickly). My wife who is very lactose intolerant can still enjoy ice cream and queso.

I do have a friend who had a severe gastrointestinal issue and basically went through having his bacteria "reset" for a lack of a better term. It was pretty terrible and he was unable to eat most things before and during, but now is back to a pretty normal diet with some modifications. He was on very aggressive antibiotics followed by months long probiotic treatments.

Lactase is the main way that people digest lactose and it's produced by human intestinal epithelial cells rather than bacteria. It seems plausible that a bacteria to digest lactose could serve a similar role, but I don't think that's how people typically digest it.

I don't have an answer to that question, but it's worth noting that lactose intolerance isn't a problem that needs solving, but rather the natural state of things for most humans on the planet and most (if not all) other mammals. There's no need for us to consume lactose after we've finished breastfeeding.

You've clearly never had a good goat cheese and thyme ice cream!

I kid but lactose intolerance does really hurt a lot of the food selection people are used to. Sure you can live off soylent or whatever but most people enjoy a wide variety of food including dairy.

Milk is in a lot of delicious things.

This is super anecdotal and personal, but that quote sounds exactly like me. I'm Asian and didn't come from Greenland. Consuming sugar usually causes me those things, especially in high dose (like eating a slice of cake). Fortunately I don't like cake or most sweet things in general, but if I do eat them, I can only very eat very little or I would feel all of those (diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating). I'm also in my late 30s and borderline underweight (5'8" and 125 lbs). I have not grown out of this sucrose intolerance over the years.

That explanation doesn't really make sense, and a different one[1] appears in the paper itself. People who lack the enzymes to digest a sugar experience gastrointestinal distress because bacteria in the lower GI tract eat the sugar that wouldn't otherwise make it to them, producing gas in the process.

[1]>This discrepancy between adults and children, may be due to the maturation and growth of the small intestine, increasing the capacity to absorb luminal fluid with increasing age, and to dietary adaptation caused by symptoms in childhood.

"Our guess is that as they age"

They are guessing and they are wrong. Higher levels of acetate are just as bad as lower levels of acetate. You know what also raises acetate levels? The metabolism of Alcohol.

The Inuit need a different diet. They do not "get used to" these sugars.

And why should someone who is lactose intolerant eat lactose? We have been getting around this for years by making yogurt and cheese.

Fecal transplants should work.

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