Fibery awesomeness (and the limits to fibery awesomeness)

[mattbell]

I've recently discovered that a lot of the dietary issues I've had in terms of various forms of intestinal distress can be solved by taking fiber supplements.  I'm using Metamucil, which is psyllium husk.  I can now eat foods which I thought I was allergic to, and they are now digested just fine.  (Note that in my case these food "allergies" were causing nothing worse than diarrhea)

Fiber has a lot of benefits.  It reduces both diarrhea and constipation by providing bulk and structure that helps the body hold food and guide it through the digestion process. 

Fiber also affects the rate of food absorption.  Since soluble fiber lowers glycemic index, it could be used to make foods that are known for causing insulin spikes (eg sodas and other things high in simple carbs) less unhealthy. 

It turns out that this sort of works.  If you mix the added fiber into the food, you can substantially lower glycemic index and glycemic load, and there have been numerous experiments of adding it to bread and breakfast cereal.  However, it turns out that you can't just take a fiber supplement before indulging in cake and get a good result.  This study found that the fiber has to be mixed in with the food itself in order for this trick to work

I'd love to see this with bread.  I'd love to see this with sodas as well, though I'm not sure if this is possible to do without dramatically affecting the texture of the soda.   If the government is going to start paying for healthcare, they should invest in encouraging the production and consumption of healthier foods.  At that point, it's not a subsidy, it's an investment.

Comments

[jhogan.livejournal.com]

this sort of post really makes me wish the government was a private industry so it really had an incentive to do stuff like this...

[veleda.livejournal.com]

you can however add things with fiber to a cake when you make it.

[tinkerbell-mk.livejournal.com]

My favorite form of fiber supplements...

GUMMY BEARS!!!

I love how many supplements are coming out in gummy bear form.

I take my omega-3's as gummy bears now too!

(I haven't looked into the relative value of chicory root -- what the fiber gummy bears use-- as a fiber supplement rather than psyllium husks.)

I'm thinking of going on an all gummy bear diet.

=)

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that people are more likely to remember to take good-tasting supplements than icky-tasting ones.

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

Where the hairy heck do you get fibre supplements in gummy bear form???

[neoteny.livejournal.com]

Fiber Choice Chewable Tablets

...take 'em every day. You'd think this was information we wouldn't have to learn the hard way (i.e. via medical intervention).

Also, when did we get old? Get off my lawn!

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

We're only old when it stops being fun. For now, it's food hacking.

[veleda.livejournal.com]

'food hacking'

awesome.

I take a calcium pill and use psyllium husks.

[eccentrific.livejournal.com]

Bread with fiber: It's called "whole wheat" ;-)

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know. But it's really hard to get people who are used to the taste of white bread to switch.

[eccentrific.livejournal.com]

That's mostly because so many so called whole grain breads suck ;-)

(and most of them aren't actually whole grain - they're white bread with added bran. I've come to the conclusion that those are the worst kind)

I used to avoid whole grain breads like the plague too, until I finally found a brand I like, so I can't blame people for not wanting to switch. But if you need more fiber in your diet, I think it's worth putting in the effort to find one you like.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

I've found I really like rye bread.

[veleda.livejournal.com]

spelt. I am really enjoying spelt.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

Failure to find truly 100% whole grain breads was the main reason I bought a bread maker. I have found a few, but with the breadmaker I get a lot more variety. (of course I haven't made any in a while because the stupid pan broke. I need a new breadmaker.)

[eccentrific.livejournal.com]

The government does encourage the consumption of healthier foods. They're just underfunded and woefully incompetent at it.

But they publish guidelines for what to eat that are actually really good. And they publicize their mypyramid.org website, which has all those guidelines.

Of course, it has them in a format that takes forever to get all of because they're on dozens of different pages, they're poorly written and difficult to understand in their entirety, and often misleading if you don't read them in their entirety.