What is Reddit's opinion of Fiber Menace: The Truth About The Leading Role Of Fiber In Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Etc.?

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For newbies, a great book about fiber and why it is not only unnecessary but can be detrimental to health is:

Fiber Menace: The Truth About The Leading Role Of Fiber In Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Etc. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0970679645/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_kKx8DbBGEZV6T)

We do not need fiber. We need protein, fat, amino acids, and certain vitamins and minerals to survive and thrive.

some fibers are prebiotic, so that makes sense but im not falling for Big Fiber's propaganda presented here /s

i do actually love this anti-fiber book tho

Fiber Menace: The Truth About The Leading Role Of Fiber In Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Etc. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0970679645/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_V97JXVETCFNCYM1VJP5K

This is a good start... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0970679645/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0970679645&linkCode=as2&tag=zchealth-20&linkId=6SJ35PICOCRHWG6C

I went complete carnivore on Jan 2nd, 0 fiber or vegetables since then and have 0 issues with bathroom habits, bloating, etc. Fiber is not necessary for a healthy, normal functioning digestive system.

Insoluble fiber is basically wood--it is cellulose fibers, just like are in cardboard. It comes from the walls of the plants that you eat (or in your case, apparently don't eat) and is indigestible. It scours the walls of the gut and does provide some bulk to feces which helps absorb water and turn rocks into something with the consistency of hard clay.

Soluble fiber is a misnomer. It isn't actually fibers of cellulose, as above, rather it is bacteria food. It is called "fiber" because it has a lot of the same functioning as insoluble fiber in that it aids the transition of feces through methods previously described. Fruit is particularly high in pectin (apples, oranges, berries). Root vegetables (notably Jerusalem Artichokes) and some lettuces are known for inulin.

You just have to do some research. Adding Romaine lettuce to your diet will have both fibers in it, lots of nutrition, and very little carbohydrate by weight. You should have a salad every day.

Interesting reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Menace-Constipation-Hemorrhoids-Ulcerative/dp/0970679645/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355226819&sr=1-1&keywords=fiber+menace

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0970679645/

Konstantin Monastyrsky

Fiber Menace: The Truth About The Leading Role Of Fiber In Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Etc.

Short. Thanks to ignoring the FDA food pyramid.

Thanks for letting me know what informed your decision and for the links and info. I had heard a bit about some of the information you shared but I have done a bit of reading on the info you shared. My reading has raised a few extra questions and points I think worth discussing. Apologies for the long post, I got pretty into the material on the topic.

I can understand that you weren't convinced until you tried it for yourself but I like to rely on the science to inform my decisions. I don't trust myself to give a credible account of what is best for my health especially around diet as there are so many factors that I can't reliably track and many conditions I wouldn't know are a concern until they appear. I think it best that I take my personal bias out of it and rely on the scientific recommendations, so in that vain I did some reading around dietary fibre and the info you shared. I can't speak to your personal experience, and I am glad that you are feeling healthy, but personally I can't accept anecdote as evidence.

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>We have a whole lot of examples of human populations that thrived without fiber, Sioux, Metis, Masai, Inuit, Sami, etc.

You gave the above example of populations without fibre. First off I found that the Sioux ate a lot of bison but did eat a range of fruits and vegetables, like wild rice and chokeberries (wild rice, chokeberries). The Metis and Inuit did eat a lot of meat, especially the Inuit where they lived in the far north of what is now Canada. There was plant material in the diet when possible (Food of the MEtis and Inuit people). This said the Inuit definitely are interesting diet wise as for most months of the year many of the Inuit people would live almost solely on consuming animals. From my reading though these peoples diet did come with negative outcomes. This review found Inuit people have the same amount of coronary artery disease as non-Inuit people. It also showed they have higher cerebrovascular strokes, overall mortality is twice as high as non-Inuit populations and life expectancy is 10 years shorter than the Danish population. 2000 year old remains of Inuit people were shown to have extensive hardening of arteries and osteoporosis (study, study). For me these don't seem like diets that would be healthy for me and I wouldn't model my diet off these peoples diet.

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>There are some good books on the subject as well, but I haven't found that I need any more convincing. Here's a popular one if you are interested in learning more.

I hadn't heard of the book you linked called "The Fibre Menace" but when I looked into it I found a bunch of information that didn't give me confidence in the book. By just searching "monastyrsky review" the third link was a link to a skeptoid article making an assessment of the credentials of Monastyrsky (skeptoid link). Reading more about the author and his book it seems that the whole book is just based off Monastyrsky's personal experience and personal beliefs on nutrition. He isn't trained in nutrition and makes inferences about his personal experience that doesn't make sense. As mentioned above I don't think an anecdote is convincing so this book isn't really much use in discovering the truth for me. Here is another link talking about the author.

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>Here's a web search with some interesting links on the subject

I looked through these links and I didn't see many that were convincing. They were blogs that were attempting to sell me things that mostly based their claims off the book discussed above, "The Fibre Menace". There were very few links to any actual scientific articles. A number of the pages even clearly stated that they shouldn't be used as medical or diet advice. One link was from Dr Berg who has had disciplinary action taken against him by the Virginian Board of Medicine for misconduct when practising chiropractics (link). These seem unconvincing especially as I did some research of my own reading some research articles on dietary fibre.

What I found when doing some searches of the literature was pretty convincing that fibre helps people decrease the risk of a number of illnesses especially coronary artery disease, diabetes and obesity. Although not a cure all it seems to be beneficial. I couldn't find articles stating that it was dangerous for the general population without any adverse health issues. Here are the conclusions from a number of the studies I read.

"Dietary fiber intake also lowered risk of death from cardiovascular, infectious, and respiratory diseases by 24%–56% in men and 34%–59% in women. Inverse association between dietary fiber intake and cancer death was observed in men, but not in women. Dietary fiber from grains, but not from other sources, was significantly inversely related to total and cause-specific death in both men and women." study (An interesting thing about the author of this study is that he was cited in one of the anti-fibre websites provided as evidence that fibre isn't required. Yet he is a proponent of increased fibre consumption)

"An inverse association between whole-grain intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes was found. The similar result for cereal fiber intake suggests that the whole-grain association is due to cereal fiber or another factor related to cereal fiber intake." study

"These observational findings suggest a beneficial effect of whole-grain and fruit and vegetable consumption on the risks of total mortality and incident CAD [Coronary Artery Disease] but not on the risk of ischemic stroke." study

"Although not as yet adopted by the FDA, dietary fiber is suggested to play a role in other conditions such as obesity and diabetes. Although some data are contradictory, a majority of studies regarding dietary fiber report a decrease of these two conditions with increased consumption of fiber." study

Your comment sent me down an interesting rabbit hole which I did enjoy looking into so thanks for that. From everything I read it seems to me that fibre isn't necessary in your diet in the same way calories are, as in if you don't consume fibre then you will die quickly. Instead fibre is recommended and scientifically backed as an effective constituent in diets to help reduce the incidence of a number of illnesses as outlined above. Thanks again but I didn't see anything convincing that the majority of people should cut fibre out of their diet.

*sigh*

I guess this keeps going.

In my field, I always like to check the opposing view of what I've been taught and what is standard dogma.

I work for a company that makes nutritional supplements. Fish oils are huge. So when I come across something like this I dive right in with an open mind. Same with fiber supplements and so this becomes very interesting. Linus Pauling is derided as a loon? I guess I'll read Linus Pauling then, he won two Nobel prizes back when they meant something and his work is in text books for chemistry and biology. (Take your vitamin C, btw - weak collagen is aging and cardiovascular disease.)

I'm a contrarian and that's how I find the truth. This also helps by Christian faith. It's just how I operate.

So when I say gravity could be wrong (and I include incomplete in that) as an example, it means that I'm open to it being wrong because our understanding very well could be incorrect or incomplete. And this is what smart physics people (like Tesla) believe as well. How else does a field advance to the truth? It gets wobbly standing on the shoulders of mere men.

And you're still doing the atheist quoting thing. Yeah, well YOU SAID:

You can quote me until you're blue in the face. Mankind's understanding of how things interact and fall and attract is evolving. Maybe gravity is wrong, maybe it's a secondary force to something more fundamental, maybe the virtues are holding everything up and pushing them around. I don't know. But if my bible said it was the virtues, then the virtues it is.

You could watch whatever you want on YouTube, it's a good medium for ideas and things. Try this, but make sure you have adblock, my new favourite: https://youtube.com/watch?v=t_W12HoHKJs

https://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Menace-Constipation-Hemorrhoids-Ulcerative/dp/0970679645

It is a dollar as kindle version.

http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Menace-Constipation-Hemorrhoids-Ulcerative/dp/0970679645

I do not know about conspiracy.

But the book is solid and lists the studies.

There's a lot of information out there.

https://chriskresser.com/myths-and-truths-about-fiber/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1325453/Everything-thought-knew-food-WRONG.html

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/01/is-fiber-bad-for-you/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111122655.htm

http://authoritynutrition.com/different-types-of-fiber/

All I did was a quick Google search. I know there is more, and perhaps some real scientific studies.

http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Menace-Constipation-Hemorrhoids-Ulcerative/dp/0970679645

I understand you're not quite all there and I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. This isn't the first nor last time more than one person has disagreed with me. Sadly they are also nearly always equally as uneducated as you. The rest of this response is not toward you, but to the OP who hopefully has the good sense to research for themselves and not just listen to newspaper dogma.

Stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptoms

Myths And Truths About Fiber

A good round-up: http://diagnosisdiet.com/food/fiber/

A particularly damning book (maybe over the top, but still...): http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Menace-Constipation-Hemorrhoids-Ulcerative/dp/0970679645

Hopefully this antagonistic alexyZZZ idiot can go and read some of these (I have a million others) and leave us alone for(ever) a while, imparting his/her (lack of) wisdom on others.

I can't say for sure that I was 100% convinced until I found out first hand, but now in hindsight it seems so obvious to me. We have a whole lot of examples of human populations that thrived without fiber, Sioux, Metis, Masai, Inuit, Sami, etc. That's not to say they never had any fiber, but surely they went long periods without any and when they did get some it was a tiny amount compared to our modern diets. With just a little understanding of their environments and dietary culture it's quite obvious that humans have thrived in environments where fiber wasn't available. We would never have survived the ice age if fiber was a requirement. The peoples listed above not only survived, when early Europeans came across these primarily carnivorous peoples they always raved about their stature, physical prowess, and endurance.

What convinced me finally is that I haven't eaten any fiber, at all, in four years now, and my digestive health is the best it's ever been. I've had microbiome tests both before and after and my diversity and gut health is far better with no fiber. No gas, no bloating, no discomfort.

There are some good books on the subject as well, but I haven't found that I need any more convincing. Here's a popular one if you are interested in learning more.

Here's a web search with some interesting links on the subject

I'll just leave this here