Will eating out 1-2x a week have a significant impact on my gut microbiome?

[u/Funny-Notice9392]

I eat a pretty healthy diet (high amounts of prebiotic fiber, inulin rich foods, resistant starches, no alcohol, no red meat, good mix of nuts/seeds/plants), however once or twice a week I like to eat out at restaurants. This could be something as simple as eating sushi, going to a local sandwich spot, or getting fast food (McDonalds, Burger King, and etc).

Will eating out and having a day or two where I eat somewhat poorly, negatively impact my gut microbiome? Or is the long-term consistent healthy eating more important than a day or two a week of poor eating?

[u/HoosegowFlask]

I try not to think in binary. Life is messy and analog. If you're consistently eating in a way that promotes gut health, then eating out a couple times a week likely isn't enough to make a huge negative difference.

Whatever allows you to be consistent is far more important than chasing "optimal".

[u/JDMoney1985]

It takes 1-2 weeks for some microbes to die off significantly. So if there's some part of your diet that you're avoiding most of the time, but then feeding it once a week, you might not be doing yourself a service.

[u/thehappyshaving → u/JDMoney1985]

your body’s pretty resilient, a couple meals out won’t undo all the good stuff you’re doing the rest of the week. sushi and sandwich spots aren’t exactly gut bombs either, unless you’re deep frying everything

the long term pattern matters way more than an occasional burger, i wouldn’t stress about it

[u/JDMoney1985 → u/thehappyshaving]

We're talking about microbes, not overall health.

[u/255cheka]

body can take one-offs. it's the chronic toxicity that really takes it's toll. but where is the line that is too much garbage food? i wonder the same thing. i live on a 19 and 2 plan. 2 meals per week are whatever i want to eat. the other 19 are for the precious gut microbes. been doing this for years with good results.

[u/wuts_juppie]

I’ve always wondered if it would be more possible to hit 30 plants a week if I ate out more. Especially buying produce at Costco really reduces the variety I am able to eat in a week

[u/gldngrlee → u/[deleted]]

I have never thought about commercial rinsing agents as I assumed the heat that’s used would take care of it. However, I’ve learned that milk kefir grains are sensitive to soap residue. Kind of alarming to consider all of the common things we ingest unknowingly. Thank you for posting that.

[u/Imaginary-Vanilla993 → u/[deleted]]

What dish soaps do you prefer to use?

[u/lousy-site-3456 → u/Imaginary-Vanilla993]

For home use it's trivial: use regular soap but don't use rinse aid and/or rinse your dishes with water/sponge after cleaning/before use. 

The main culprit identified, for now, is alcohol ethoxylates. They are usually not found in home use soap but common in commercial dishwasher soap. 

[u/gladecover-scout]

No it won’t. Your gut biome is largely unchanging unless you’re exposed to new microbes or you kill / damage the ones you have with antibiotics.

[u/somanyquestions32]

Yes, it will definitely impact it. I have been cutting back on eating out to avoid overpaying for meager portions of lackluster food, especially due to the vegan tax. The difference is night and day. My digestion at home is better when I skip restaurants for two weeks, but that could be because I don't eat super spicy or greasy foods at home. I have been wearing a continuous blood glucose monitor a friend gave me, and when I eat out, I have much higher peaks than when I eat healthier at home. 

[u/gladecover-scout → u/somanyquestions32]

This comment has no scientific validity. Please consider you replies before making uninformed comments like this.

[u/somanyquestions32 → u/gladecover-scout]

This is Reddit, and there's not going to be a population-level study always available for a random question posted 20 hours ago. You can go to Pubmed and scour the research literature for that if you please, but OP did not ask for a citation in their post, so spare me your nonsense.

Again, anyone with eyes can tell that if your diet is consistently healthy without cheat days, your digestion will be much better than one where you are eating fast food for one to two days per week. 

If you want to do stool analyses for a 10,000 people and pay for it out of your own pocket to confirm what you can see in the toilet at home, be my guest, but the gut microbiome will definitely be impacted.