Category: Health Tips

Hi Tom,

When you read the calorie count on a food label, do you assume that’s exactly what your body takes in?

I did, for years.

A new study suggests that isn’t quite true.

Researchers at Arizona State University have built a mathematical model, called DAMM, that follows food all the way through the highways and byways of your digestive tract. It estimates how much energy your body absorbs early on. And how much your gut bacteria add from whatever is left over.

That second part never makes it onto the label.

The calorie numbers on packaging come from a system more than 100 years old. Each gram of fat, carbohydrate, and protein gets an average calorie value, and the total is added up. It’s simple, and it’s useful. But it doesn’t ask what happens to the food that reaches your colon, or what your gut bacteria do with it.

And they do quite a lot.

Fiber and resistant starch that your own digestion can’t break down get fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids. Some of those are absorbed into your bloodstream and used as energy.

According to the model, that adds up to about 140 calories a day. Roughly 7% of the usable energy in the diet came from what your gut bacteria made out of the food you couldn’t digest yourself.

When the researchers tested the model against real measurements from a controlled feeding study, it came closer than the traditional calorie method.

This is the part I found most interesting.

In that earlier study, healthy adults ate either a high-fiber, less processed diet or a typical Western-style diet. The people on the Western diet absorbed about 116 more calories a day.

And the people eating all that extra fiber didn’t report feeling any hungrier.

Which seems backwards at first.

The high-fiber diet gave their gut bacteria far more to work with, and they made more short-chain fatty acids. Yet overall, those people absorbed fewer calories. The upper gut took in less, and the microbes didn’t fully make up the difference.

A few caveats are worth knowing. DAMM is a research model, not a diet plan. It was tested against one small study of 17 healthy adults, and the authors say it needs testing in more people, including those with metabolic conditions, before anyone uses it to tailor diets. And, I will add, 116 calories a day isn’t a weight-loss strategy I know!

But what it does show is something I keep coming back to: Your food provides the raw materials. Your gut bacteria decide what happens next.

Which means fiber-rich, less processed foods aren’t just “good for you” in some vague way. They’re feeding a community of microbes that is doing real work on your behalf.

So, the next time you glance at a calorie label, remember it’s only half the story. The other half is happening in your gut.

Yours for better health, naturally,

Sarah Otto
Nutritionist (Master of Human Nutrition)
Goodness Lover Co-Founder

Scientific Reference:
Davis, T.L. et al. “Modeling the microbial contribution to human energy balance using the Digestion, Absorption, and Microbial Metabolism (DAMM) model.” PLOS ONE, May 2026. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0347668

Could the foods teenagers eat and the drinks they choose offer clues to their mental health? Researchers followed thousands of Australian students over three years to investigate the connection.1

In a recent study published in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health, researchers investigated whether greater fruit and vegetable intake and lower sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption were linked to common mental disorder (CMD) risk among adolescents in Australia. While greater fruit intake was linked to lower risks of meeting screening thresholds for depression and anxiety, higher SSB intake was associated with greater risk, with a numerically stronger association for anxiety among males. Fruit intake had an inverse relationship with both outcomes, with depression risk 13% lower and anxiety risk 7% lower for each additional daily serving. Based on the findings, everyday dietary choices may be relevant to adolescent mental health and inform early prevention strategies.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20261019/Fruit-and-sugary-drinks-stood-out-in-a-three-year-study-of-teenage-mental-health.aspx

79% of Australians say they check whether their canned tuna is sustainable, but only 15% look for an independently verified label. We went through the tuna sold at Coles, Woolworths, ALDI and IGA right now: independent sustainability ratings, ingredient labels, a 2026 blind taste test, price per kilo and each brand’s track record. Here are the 12 tins to think twice about, the 4 that are actually worth your money, and the 5 label checks that stop you getting caught out again.

Labels and prices referenced are current at the time of recording (October 2026). Recipes, sourcing and prices change, so always check the tin in store. Nothing in this video suggests any product is unsafe to eat.

Click to view the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjG3Q2AF3R0

My guess is it wont be adopted by psychiatrists. It would stop their cash flow.

I dont think life changing medical decisions should be done based on someone’s Facebook comment. If you are on psyche meds always get professional medical help to wean off them as they are destructively addictive and withdrawal can cause severe reactions. Research should be done. Here is a summary of what I found out.

• N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) is both an FDA-approved prescription medication and a widely available over-the-counter dietary supplement.
• Glutathione Precursor: NAC is derived from the natural amino acid L-cysteine. Your body uses it to make glutathione, which is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants for fighting cellular stress.
• General Health & Wellness: Sold in pill, capsule, or powder form for antioxidant support, immune health, and reducing inflammation.
• Emerging/Investigational Uses: Studied for mental health and brain support (such as OCD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia) as well as helping reduce substance use cravings.
• Regulatory Status: It occupies a unique “gray zone”/ Originally studied and approved as a drug, the FDA allows it to be sold as a dietary supplement.

Arginine does more than help build proteins — your cells also need this amino acid to produce immune-alert proteins that help T cells recognize infected or abnormal cells.

When arginine became scarce, the cellular machinery responsible for building these immune-alert proteins stalled, leaving fewer warning signals available to help the immune system detect threats.

In mice, increasing dietary arginine reduced colon tumor formation and improved outcomes in influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infections, benefits that disappeared when researchers disabled the immune pathway arginine supports, confirming the effect wasn’t coincidental.

Whole foods are the preferred starting point for maintaining healthy arginine intake, with grass fed beef, lamb and watermelon providing options without relying automatically on supplements.

Adequate protein, sufficient carbohydrates and lower linoleic acid intake support the broader cellular environment your immune system needs to produce energy, build proteins and respond effectively to threats.

(Tom: Some of the reasons I include L-Arginine in several of my nutrition powders.)

Finish reading:   https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2026/10/13/arginine-immune-function.aspx

In a laboratory study, erythritol disrupted several functions in cultured human brain blood vessel cells, raising concerns that its effects extend beyond blood sugar and calorie content.

Erythritol increased oxidative stress while reducing nitric oxide production by about 20%, interfering with a key process that helps your blood vessels relax and regulate blood flow.

The sweetener increased production of endothelin-1, which promotes blood vessel constriction, by about 30%, further shifting the balance away from healthy blood vessel function.

Erythritol-treated cells failed to activate their normal clot-clearing response when researchers exposed them to a clotting signal, suggesting another way the sweetener could interfere with healthy brain blood vessel function.

Avoiding erythritol starts with checking ingredient lists — it appears in many products not obviously marketed as sugar-free — and choosing natural sweeteners like ripe fruit, raw honey or maple syrup in moderation rather than replacing it with another artificial substitute.

Finish reading:  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2026/10/19/erythritol-brain-blood-vessels.aspx