Why YSK: fiber is important for optimal human health. It helps us avoid diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, obesity, and other diseases. This is particularly important in developed countries such as mine (USA) that are suffering greatly from these diseases.
The recommended daily fiber intake is 25g for women and 38g for men in the USA, and 95% of us don’t meet this amount. This suggests an urgent need for us to increase our daily fiber intake, which can be achieved by swapping out ultra-processed foods and animal foods that are void of fiber with whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
Thanks for the reminder. I keep forgetting to look out for chia & flax seeds when grocery shopping…
Fiber should be the principle and perhaps only macro nutrient most people interested in improving their health and weight should track. If you are consuming enough fiber, you are necessarily eating a large volume of healthy, calorie-poor food, and it becomes a challenge to overeat at all. Once you’ve got your fiber intake high enough you can basically eat anything you want in addition to that.
We highly recommend Benefiber for anyone. It is tasteless, doesn’t change the texture of your food or drink, and can be added to almost anything.
I think many people avoid adding fiber to their diets because it requires a change in diet or a supplement that is often gross.
Edit: Here’s a link. https://www.benefiber.com/fiber-supplement-products/benefiber-powder/
I think I’m using a similar thing and I agree that it’s ideal.
This is what I do. I get the giant jugs at Costco and put them in the cabinet where we keep all our coffee stuff. Every morning I scoop it into my coffee before making it and it’s so easy. You’d never even know it was in the drink as it dissolves completely once stirred.
If you buy a supplement, definitely get the fine ground. I made the mistake of buying course ground and it’s like adding orange juice pulp to everything because it’s so chunky.
Same! First cup of coffee every day is the powder cup, goes in with the splenda. :)
Better than psyllium husk?
In results, no.
In ease of consumption, yes.
I think so, yes. At least from a taste and texture standpoint, it is waaaay better. Psyllium husk (Metamucil) changes the texture of drinks and foods, causing them to congeal into a viscous gel.
Benefiber does not change the texture of the food or drink and is odourless and tasteless.
I will note however, after a quick google just now, that Metamucil was shown in a study to lower cholestrol while Benefiber did not.
For me though, it’s all about what changes I can make and stick to, and something that changes texture is very hard for me to get down.
I can get psyllium husks in tablet form. No need to mix it with anything.
goes and gets a carrot from the fridge after reading this post
Only 10 more to go!
(Based on an adult male needing 38g, the mean fiber intake being 16g, and a large carrot containing 2g)
But what about baby carrots
You should also know that there’s soluble and insoluble fiber. Both are important, but what people are more likely to lack is insoluble fiber.
Do you know if chia seeds have insoluble fiber
Yes, they are a great source of insoluble fiber.
Does the USDA recommend single mode or multi mode?
I mean, it’s gonna depend on how long you want the runs.
I started using complex fiber supplements (as in whole dried ground foods with multiple sources and types of fiber) about a month ago, honestly life changing, cannot recommend enough.
Vegetables measured in units of 120ml (because it’s half of some cups) is really stupid.
that article is written by vegan spiders, who sink their fangs into the tender flesh of a carrot and drain it of its essence, leaving only a withered stick behind.
Realistically it looks like the majority of my fiber intake is about to become oats and popcorn…
You can throw some chia seeds in the oats to add to it. Doesn’t change the taste or anything.
Ah but you assume I will remember to BUY Chia seeds 😂
Yeah, actually acquiring them is pretty critical to the whole idea.
Lol that’s hilarious. I laugh so much at the crazy mixing of units we use here in the US. Similarly, it’s quite common to see metric and customary units in the same sentence, as in “add 1 tablespoon to 100 mL of water”.
Thank you!
Wow, why such a discrepancy between men and women?
On average, men big, women smol.
The fiber ratio in this post is extremely close to the weight ratio between my wife and me.
Shouldn’t it just be weight dependent then, or is that too complicated to communicate?
You forgot the part where it allows you to have a normal bowel movement without straining. It’s the path to hemorrhoid reduction, possibly annihilation.
Reading this as someone blessed with whole grain rye-wheat mix bread, heck I can even buy the flour to make my own bread.
Change to whole grain, folks!
Finally, a pro-health justification for eating the whole container of oatmeal cookies.
I think I’ve started reaching this amount recently since I’ve changed my diet and started eating more oatmeal and fruits/vegetables. With that said, fiber can actually cause problems for some people, it can cause bloating/pain for some people even with adequate water intake to match the fiber.
If you suddenly add the recommended dosage to your diet, you will absolutely have problems like that at first.
It’s ideal to slowly increase your fiber intake so your body has time to adjust to it. That way those problems are minimized until it’s a regular part of your diet.To be fair, I added them to my diet without ramping up without issues, and there are people who can ramp them up and their body never adjusts to it/handles it properly. It all depends on the person, ultimately.
Your body needs time to adjust, you should work your way up to it.
True, but some people’s bodies don’t need time to adjust, and some people’s bodies are unable to adjust, it just depends on the person.
if your body can’t handle fibre, that’s not fibre being bad, that’s it telling you that you need to start getting in contact with medical professionals to make sure you stay healthy.
Not necessarily true, some people just don’t tolerate fiber well. It doesn’t mean that they absolutely definitely have something medically wrong, for some people it just causes bloating no matter what.
I once had a consultation with a surgeon about hemorrhoid surgery. Her recommendation was to use fiber supplements because it’s almost impossible to get enough fiber from food alone.
(I ended up getting a bidet, and now my fiber-poor garbage diet doesn’t cause that particular problem anymore )
From an American diet maybe. But that’s because our processed foods and meat fetish are really unhealthy.
I’m up to 70g of natural fiber a day! I’m plant-based though so it’s easy for me when most of my foods are whole plant foods.
polished grains are a terrible curse upon humanity, just switching them out for whole grain is such an easy boost to your health. Not just more fibre, but more vitamins and stuff too along with proportionally less simple carbs!
Psyllium husk pills are awesome
I had to start supplementing with psyllium fiber (powder) several months ago after a massive hemorrhoid attack last fall. (Surgeon gave me the identical advice.)
If I don’t get at least 40 g a day of total fiber (about 20+ of which are the powder), stools get large ‘n’ hard. It’s working, and my ass is thanking me.
What I’m having trouble squaring is I don’t think we evolved eating that much fiber every day. Pre-agriculture it would have been (depending on which part of the planet) lot’s of animal protein and whatever roots & berries you could find, right?
How do you consume so much psyllium? I find it difficult to get down because it turns to goo very fast
mix it quickly with cold water and chug
Micheal Greger in “how not to die” talks about this. He says that hunter gatherers would eat mostly plants and sometimes some meat. And all plant food was not process so with lot of fiber
Bingo, we were not bagging big game and eating a 16oz steak daily. Meat was and should be a luxury.
Psyllium husk is a really affordable way to add fiber, just BE AWARE OF DOSAGE, when they say TEASPOON. THEY MEAN IT!
LFMF.
What this person means is that IF YOU OVERDO IT YOU WILL SHIT YOUR BRAINS OUT AND IT WILL BE AN EMERGENCY.
That’s not really the concern. It’s just bulk. As long as it is well hydrated when you consume it, it’s very inert and you can’t really have too much. If it’s still partially dry, it’ll jam you up until it sucks enough water out of you, so that’s no good.
But that first purge feels so healthy though!
Ironically if you don’t take enough water with it, you’ll get constipated. It’s used for treating both.
