Is Fiber Part of A Healthy Diet?
Firstly, watch this...
Secondly, if you are to lazy too, I have summarised my findings below:
Dr. Paul Mason has given a talk challenging conventional wisdom within the health industry -- specifically, he is confronting the notion: is fiber is important for a healthy diet?
My entire life I have been force fed this stupid fallacy that fiber is essential to a human diet. As a health coach, I often get asked when people are interested in going low-carb where they will get their highly praised fibre from?
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect”
I will add a personal experience at the end. For now, I have chronologically compiled my notes from the video below with rough time-outlines so you can skip to specific points if you please.
Dr. Paul Mason begins trying to convince the audience of a few things:
Fiber is NOT a necessity for a healthy diet
Many LOW-CARB foods actually cause bloating
There simply is not enough evidence in medical literature to suggest altering your gut bacteria can lead to weight-loss
Pffft...wow. Already, I can hear some of my readers doubting everything because it's been grained (literally) in us that fiber is important and for the most part, the recent hype about gut-bacteria has created a huge market of shitty products claiming to give you miracle weight-loss abilities.
Let's dig in, shall we....
1:07
Fibre is considered the carbohydrate part of the plant in which we cannot digest
There are two types of fibre: soluble and insoluble: soluble is readily available to be fermented by our gut bacteria in the colon in which gas is released and insoluble fibre is resistant and can't be digested
2:34
There is not one randomised control study looking at constipation and fibre and how the two compliment or help each other
2:55
The best possible study Dr. Paul Mason could find compared a high fibre diet, low fibre diet and zero fibre diet and it showed the zero fibre diet to eliminate ALL symptoms of constipation (anal bleeding, stomach pain etc.) -- thats right -- the high fibre diet actually made the symptoms worse!
4:50
Every person from the study on the zero fibre -- let me repeat that, every person on the ZER0 FIBRE diet -- had a bowl movement once a day. In agonising contrast, the people on the high fibre diet had a bowl movement once every 6.83 days
6:00
Dr. Paul Mason shows a flattering slide image of how adding fibre to the diet to relieve constipation is like adding cars onto a highway that bottle-necks -- it just doesn't work!
Do you still think you need fibre? Wait, I'm just getting started (but we could be here a while because I had a bran bar yesterday...)
6:21
Fibre does not moisten the stool and causes bloating
6:40
Fibre is fermented by the gut bacteria in the large intestine in which short-chain fatty acids are created
7:45
The best information available suggests fibre worsens bloating and constipation
Pay close attention low-carb junkies -- this is where is gets even more interesting
7:50
List of LOW-CARB foods HIGH in fibre
Soluble fibre:
Avocados (yes, your beloved fat bombs can cause problems for some people)
Berries
Artichokes
Psyllium Husk (no wonder those banting pancakes caused a rather disturbed...wait, I'm getting too personal. Carry on)
Flax Seeds
Nuts (especially Almonds)
Insoluble:
Nuts
Seeds
Beans
Cauliflower (I'm talking to you. Yes you, the low-carb pizza crust guys that have a slight bloating around the stomach)
Zucchini (oh now were getting interesting)
Celery
Avo
Tomato
Raw coconut
Broccoli (honestly fuck broccoli anyway it's boring, tasteless and you need to eat about 2 tons to get any real benefits)
Strawberries
8:45
If fibre is praised for creating the "important" short-chained fatty acid, only about 5% of our energy in a common diet comes from these short-chain fatty acids anyway -- so why would you need them exclusively for energy?
Even IF you needed fibre to create these short-chain fatty acids, they are only useful after being converted to ketones! So it begs the question: would it not just make more fucking sense if we ate a ketogenic diet to accommodate this?
He then gets super sciencey and mentions how ketones satisfy every cell and bacteria instead of the ones in your gut. This part you will have to watch to fully understand -- but, It makes sense: ketones are available and ready to be utilised by every cell in the body -- why would you want fibre that takes a longer period to be converted?
10:40
Short-chain fatty acids are produced more efficiently via an animal based diet than a plant-based one
Dr. Paul Mason quotes a study in which fibre "controls blood sugar levels" in isolation -- which is true, but if you do not eat a high carbohydrate diet in the first place you wouldn't need to intervene in the first place anyway -- and, the blood sugar levels that were "controlled" in the study were way too high anyway!
11:45
Dr. Paul Mason bashes medical literature for referring to a low-carb diet as a low-bag (low biologically available glucose) diet -- he finds it funny how they won't admit it is actually low-carb diets that are controlling blood glucose levels and not fucking medicine.
13:05
“Our gastrointestinal gut is not set up to process fibre the way herbivores are”
Dr. Paul shows a comparison between a herbivore and a human digestive system. A herbivores cecum is large thus allowing for fermentation of fibre whereas a human is small, thus the need for fibre is reduced.
13:40
Dr. Paul mentions how FOD MAPS can lead to bloating and digestive issues because they attract fluid which leads to watery stools and IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome) and constipation
14:45
There was a study published earlier this year showing how patients with the condition "Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity" were given different bars with gluten, fructan and nothing -- essentially, the fructan was the problem, not the gluten
15:50
“If you ever wonder why you feel bloated or constipated after cauliflower mash, you may have found the answer”
FOD MAPS found on low-carb diet
Blackberries
Watermelon
Asparagus
Onion
Cauliflower
Maltitol
Sorbitol
Polyols are artificial zero-calorie sweeteners that are sugar alcohols which are poly-absorbed and attract water and cause bloating -- this makes sense to why even things labelled as "zero-calories" can cause problems for people
16:45
The gut-microbiome in the colon:
he asks, can these bacteria make us fat?
90% of the bacteria is from one of two groups: firmicules and bacteriodetes
the first one causes weight-gain and the other is associated with fat-loss
Ultimately, bacteria thrive in different conditions and this just reinforces that everyone is uniquely different (having said that, if you're eating low-carb and you are still pudgy, maybe it's time to change)
18:30
“It has been documented that you can get major changes in the gut bacteria in a day”
This is why I've noticed (me Josh speaking), a single fast or day of eating good food can make me feel great. Don't underestimate a single decision or meal -- it can change your life
The bacteroidetes -- the gut bacteria associated with fat-loss -- is also associated with ketogenic diets
The writing is on the wall -- keto is the future of health and fitness my peeps
19:07
Dr. Paul Mason shows a study of mice and how their gut bacteria was altered and basically it showed that your diet effects your gut bacteria which is associated with weight-loss -- not the other way around
21:21
To add onto the point above, Dr. Paul shows how Trehalose -- the stuff that makes ice cream freeze at a lower temperature -- fucks with weight-loss (please watch and listen to the ending carefully and don't exclusively look at my personal notes)
To conclude his talk, Dr. Paul Mason sums it up:
Fibre is NOT a neccessity for a healthy diet
Even low-carb foods and certain foods you percieve as healthy are hugh in fibre and can cause a host of problems (see list above)
Altering our microbiome for weight-loss is a bridge too far in todays age (focus on a high fat low-carb diet which will alter your gut bacteria and cause ketones to be more effecient therefore weight-loss will occur)
When I said this was the most important post I've written on health I was not lying.
I have now cut fibre from my diet almost entirely and I am the strongest I have ever been. I used to get terrible shoulder pain when doing certain lifts in CrossFit (mainly cleans and snatches) -- it no longer shows up. My digestive issues that used to show up regularly, no longer occur.
It's easy to dismiss this as exclusively anecdotal and not very scientific -- but, I have no doubt it's due to my diet change. Thanks to social media, there is literally thousands of people speaking out on how their lives have changed by going full-carnivore.
I love people who challenge conventional wisdom within the health industry and this presentation took the bull by the horns. I have had a few people comment on my instagram asking about my bowl movements on a carnivore diet. They have never been more consistent and better. In fact, when I do eat any form of fibre now, it actually makes things noticeably worse (think of the car analogy).
My mom who has had chronic arthritis in her right thumb (to a point where she could not move her finger straight) and shoulder -- waking up in agonising pain every morning -- no longer affects her. After a few days on the diet she phoned me and could not believe it.
The fact is, it's far more eligant to tell people to eat smoothie bowls and promote beautiful toxic plant-based products than say: "Hey, dickhead...meat is good for you! It's the other shit you eat with it that's the problem."
I'm certainly not suggesting everyone cut out fibre from their diets. Some people actually thrive on fibre as mentioned above -- everyone has different optimal gut bacterial living conditions. But, what I am highly suggesting, is if you are suffering from bloating, IBS, arthritis or any other chronic health issues, please don't sit in pain and do something.
Suffering is optional.
If you would like to be coached by me or know of someone close to you who might be, I offer a FREE 30-min no obligation consultation online call where we can discuss the way forward. Email me coach@joshsnyman.com.
Peace!