Can your brain mess up your digestion?

[Grouptose]

This is so weird, anytime I eat a food that I feel "guilty" for eating, for example, white rice. I know that it's a good source of calories and will help me to maintain good weight, but because I know deep down that it's a grain and will make me feel sluggish later on, my digestion becomes impaired. Like I'll have very slow digestion, food feels like it's stuck in my chest, and all sorts of crap like that. Is my brain sending a signal to my GI tract to tell it "ay you're eating a grain, stop digesting it"

This is so weird, because before I knew about rice being a "grain" and being a bad food, I could digest it without many issues, it seems like after reading up about it, my body has lost it's ability. What should I do? Will convincing my self that white rice is good by eating lots of it everyday reverse this issue? Or will that make it worse?

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

"Stress and anxiety sharply reduce the circulation of blood to the intestine and liver. Prolonged stress damages the ability of the in-testinal cells to exclude large molecules. Local irritation and inflammation of the intestine also increase its permeability and decrease its ability to exclude harmful materials. But even the normal intestine is able to permit the passage of large molecules and particles, in many cases particles larger than the cells that line the intestine; this persorption of particles has been demonstrated using particles of plastic, starch grains which are sometimes several times larger than blood cells, and many other materials, including carrageenan. One of the reasons it has been easy to convince the public that persorption doesn't happen is that there is a powerful myth in our culture about the existence of a "semipermeable" "plasma membrane" on cells through which only certain specific substances may pass." -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I think it goes both ways, your bad digestion messes up your brain and your brain can mess up your good digestion.

Starch - The Delicious Devil

"Volkheimer found that mice fed raw starch aged at an abnormally fast rate, and when he dissected the starch-fed mice, he found a multitude of starch-grain-blocked arterioles in every organ, each of which caused the death of the cells that depended on the blood supplied by that arteriole. It...

raypeatforum.com

 

[mostlylurking]

Your brain controls your digestion via your vagus nerve: Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders

Thiamine is required for the autonomic nervous system to function properly:

SIBO, IBS, and Constipation: Unrecognized Thiamine Deficiency? - Hormones Matter

Is it possible that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is simply a symptom of an underlying vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency?

www.hormonesmatter.com

White rice has had all the thiamine stripped out of it, and it requires thiamine to be used as fuel in oxidative metabolism. Subsisting on white rice causes the thiamine deficiency disease known as beriberi.

Beriberi | Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Beriberi, nutritional disorder caused by a deficiency of thiamin (vitamin B1) and characterized by impairment of the nerves and heart. General symptoms include loss of appetite and overall lassitude, digestive irregularities, and a feeling of numbness and weakness in the limbs and extremities. (The

www.britannica.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Your brain controls your digestion via your vagus nerve: Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders

Thiamine is required for the autonomic nervous system to function properly:

SIBO, IBS, and Constipation: Unrecognized Thiamine Deficiency? - Hormones Matter

Is it possible that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is simply a symptom of an underlying vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency?

www.hormonesmatter.com

White rice has had all the thiamine stripped out of it, and it requires thiamine to be used as fuel in oxidative metabolism. Subsisting on white rice causes the thiamine deficiency disease known as beriberi.

Beriberi | Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Beriberi, nutritional disorder caused by a deficiency of thiamin (vitamin B1) and characterized by impairment of the nerves and heart. General symptoms include loss of appetite and overall lassitude, digestive irregularities, and a feeling of numbness and weakness in the limbs and extremities. (The

www.britannica.com

Wow! This is interesting!

 

[IT'S OVER]

i never felt guilt for eating anything that i eat, yet my digestion is terrible

 

[Beastmode]

Doing neurofeedback over a period of months definitely had an inverse effect on my gut. Basically, the underlying anxious patterns, perseverance, etc were massively "dialed down." Less "brain" stress has impacted everything else in my experience.

 

[mostlylurking]

i never felt guilt for eating anything that i eat, yet my digestion is terrible

You are confusing emotions with the autonomic nervous system. This is not a conscious mind over body thing. You can't "think" yourself well.

Anatomy, Autonomic Nervous System - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Hypertension, the Autonomic System, and Thiamine - Hormones Matter

It has been shown in the above text that hypoxia and pseudo-hypoxia have virtually identical effects in the area of the brain that is peculiarly sensitive to thiamine deficiency.

www.hormonesmatter.com

quote: "There is much evidence that the common indulgence of empty calories, particularly those derived from simple carbohydrates and processed fats, is producing pathophysiologic brain effects due to what has been termed high calorie malnutrition. This form of malnutrition is totally different from that produced by starvation, the traditional form of malnutrition. Although the concentration of thiamine in the blood may be considered to be normal, it is only normal in the presence of a healthy diet. The excess of empty calories results in a high calorie/thiamine ratio that overwhelms the normal oxidative capacity associated with the presence of thiamine."

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

....

You are confusing emotions with the autonomic nervous system. This is not a conscious mind over body thing. You can't "think" yourself well.

Anatomy, Autonomic Nervous System - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Hypertension, the Autonomic System, and Thiamine - Hormones Matter

It has been shown in the above text that hypoxia and pseudo-hypoxia have virtually identical effects in the area of the brain that is peculiarly sensitive to thiamine deficiency.

www.hormonesmatter.com

quote: "There is much evidence that the common indulgence of empty calories, particularly those derived from simple carbohydrates and processed fats, is producing pathophysiologic brain effects due to what has been termed high calorie malnutrition. This form of malnutrition is totally different from that produced by starvation, the traditional form of malnutrition. Although the concentration of thiamine in the blood may be considered to be normal, it is only normal in the presence of a healthy diet. The excess of empty calories results in a high calorie/thiamine ratio that overwhelms the normal oxidative capacity associated with the presence of thiamine."

This is exactly right. This is why Ray Peat says white sugar is a last resort, not because it is bad, but because it has no nutrition, the same as white rice. Isn't that what even the mainstream health experts warn about, empty carbs?

 

[mostlylurking]

....

This is exactly right. This is why Ray Peat says white sugar is a last resort, not because it is bad, but because it has no nutrition, the same as white rice. Isn't that what even the mainstream health experts warn about, empty carbs?

Yes.

I don't think white sugar is "bad" in and of itself, but it sure is a problem if you aren't tanked up on enough thiamine. It is a balancing act. Some people (Ray Peat?) have gut bacteria that make thiamine and some people don't; they can have gut bacteria that make thiaminase (blocks thiamine) instead. Some people are carrying heavy metal toxins in their bodies which devour thiamine, making them need more thiamine to feel normal. Some people drink coffee or tea which block thiamine and make them more susceptible to thiamine deficiency issues.