Lactoferrin alleviates Western diet-induced cognitive impairment | Hacker News Reader

Lactoferrin alleviates Western diet-induced cognitive impairment

linkinghub.elsevier.com

28 pointsbirriel12 comments

If you look at their definition of what western diet is it doesn't make any sense compared to the normal diet. Western diet is apparently just a little bit more fat with a little bit more carbohydrates and less protein percentages... I don't think this actually fits the profile with what someone would assume someone means by Western diet. The assumption someone would make quickly glancing at this is that humans eating an American diet have cognitive impairment and that taking this can alleviate cognitive impairment caused by eating the American diet... This is about mice and this is some weird diet called the Western diet provided by Dyets inc. lol. This is just noise.

  After 1 week of acclimation, the mice were randomly divided into four groups: the CON (n = 18), WD (n = 18), Lf (n = 18), and Lf + antibiotics (AB) (n = 12). The mice in the CON group were fed with a standard diet (AIN93G, kcal%: protein 20.3%, carbohydrate 63.9%, and fat 15.8%), while the other three groups were fed with WD (D18061501, kcal%: protein 17%, carbohydrate 43%, and fat 40%). Both diets were purchased from Dyets Inc., (Wuxi, Jiangsu, China) (Table A.1). Native bovine Lf (92.5% purity) was obtained from Hilmar Cheese Company (CA, USA).

Where's the low carb high fat? Where's the high carb high protein low fat? Where's the humans?

> Where's the humans?

I don't think we should be feeding humans to mice. People these days tend to be 30% fat or more - that's just too unhealthy for our little furry friends.

I'm not sure. I think humans would make a reasonably good source of protein and animal fats. I would think human chum would be a low carb diet and might increase the health and longevity of the mice.

Anyone offering to donate their corpse to science?

and we're too bony for our fish friends, what are we good for?

Agreed, this is nonsense. Macronutrient proportions will be more or less the same from culture to culture, but will be much more variable at the individual level. It's micronutrients that are more likely to change more widely, due to different foods containing different amounts of them.

Wouldn't lactoferrin, a peptide, be broken down by the stomach before it even enters the bloodstream?

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/smal...

"There is virtually no absorption of peptides longer than four amino acids."

"Lactoferrin—also known as lactotransferrin—is comprised of 692 amino acids folded into two globular lobes that are connected by an α–helix" -- https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/4/870/htm

So any effect would be mediated by the microbiome, which doesn't require absorption.

But the gut microbiome is also past the stomach, where the protein degradation occurs. As a result the only place it could have an effect never sees it.

1st paragraph:

> Lactoferrin (Lf) has been shown to benefit cognitive function in several animal models. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, male C57BL/6J mice ...

in mice: https://www.statnews.com/2019/04/15/in-mice-twitter-account-...

At 500mg/kg, the recommended dosage for adult male would be about 300L of cow milk per day.

At this dosage, seawater may be lethal :-)

Doeas a "western diet" not include (lactoferrin containing) milk?

At 500mg/kg of body weight, it is equivalent of 300L of cow milk for an adult male.

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