Fiber

"The diets we consume are highly processed and depleted in fiber, and that has a major adverse impact on health," --Edward Glovannucci, associate professor of medicine at Harvard University's school of public health.

If you follow a typical Western diet, you are not eating enough fiber. From breakfast to dinner, fiber is disappearing from the American diet, as high-margin, eat-on-the-go packaged foods replace basic foodstuffs. Long dismissed simply as "roughage," fiber is basically the remnants of plants that the human digestive system can't be digested or absorbed by the body. It is found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole unprocessed grains. Fiber is essential for the normal function of the gut. Unfortunately, the breads and cereals you buy at the supermarket have been stripped of their fiber. On one level, fiber has been on its way out for decades, through the high-speed processing of raw commodities such as fruit and grain. But its disappearance is being hastened now, as a side effect of the food-industry's drive to develop snacks and easy-to-prepare dishes to replace what used to be called square meals.

Most Americans eat about half of the thirty to forty grams of fiber daily recommended by the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. The fiber erosion is occurring just as experts are warning of a critical fiber deficiency in the U.S. After the flash-in-the-pan fiber craze of the late 1980s, fiber's reputation took a hit amid conflicting research into its role in preventing colon cancer. But new studies have underscored the connection, and now the national scarcity of dietary fiber is being more carefully scrutinized for its role in everything from heart disease to obesity to diverticulitis, a rapidly growing intestinal disease. The number of people hospitalized with diverticular disease jumped to 546,000 in 2000, the last year for which figures are available, from 440,000 in 1987. Diverticulitis kills an estimated 3,000 Americans a year, according to federal health officials. In early-stage diverticulitis called diverticulosis, the intestines become malformed as the colon develops pea-size bulges called diverticula. Once formed, they can't be reversed, if they perforate, the result can be fatal. The diet-diverticulitis link isn't new.

In a 1977 clinical trial at Oxford University, two patient groups with diverticulitis were given crackers with low fiber (about half a gram) or high fiber (nearly seven grams). Symptoms, ranging from abdominal pain to poorly performing bowels, dropped off so drastically for the high-fiber cracker group that the researcher halted the study early, noting it would be "unethical to deprive patients of such treatment." Some researchers think the problem is the longstanding practice of processing out fiber, which gives packaged foods smoother texture and extends their shelf-life. Absent enough fiber, the intestines must work harder to expel waste. Perhaps because the U.S. food supply is so highly processed, Americans are more vulnerable to diverticulitis than people in other countries, studies show.

Warning that Americans are eating only about half the fiber they need daily, the American Dietetic Association says persuading people to eat more fiber-rich plant foods could have a "significant impact on the prevention and treatment of obesity, cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes." Low-fiber diets are a major cause of many common gut disorders including constipation and diverticulosis, veritable epidemics in the U.S. Several studies have shown that fiber can help reduce symptoms and prevent the recurrence of several serious gut problems including Crohn's disease, hiatal hernia, ulcers, and irritable bowel.

There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber is found in foods such as apple, oat bran, and broccoli. Many studies have shown that soluble fiber can lower blood cholesterol levels, which protects against heart disease. Insoluble fiber, found in foods such as celery, fresh greens, wheat bran, and legumes like kidney and pinto beans, speeds up the movement of food through the intestine. This not only prevents constipation but reduces the exposure of the gut to toxins normally found in food. High-fiber foods, including many fruits and vegetables, act as an appetite suppressant, helping slow the absorption of nutrients in the gut and leaving a person feeling full longer and less likely to overeat.

Fiber also plays another critical role in the gut. Fiber does not undergo normal digestion. Rather, it is broken down by friendly bacteria in the small and large intestine, and then converted into short-chain fatty acids that are then used by the cells of the gut as an energy source. In other words, fiber not only nourishes the friendly bacteria but provides energy to keep the gut running smoothly. If you don't eat enough fiber you will have a sluggish gut. You will suffer from constipation, you will be forced to use unnecessary products like artificial laxatives, and you will never feel really healthy.

Eyeing the latest evidence, the National Academy of Sciences, in 2002, suggested a revision in the recommended fiber intake for Americans, to 38 grams a day for men and 25 grams for women up to age 50, with slightly lower levels for those over 50. The previous recommendations called for 25 to 30 grams, regardless of age and gender. The average American consumes only about 15 grams a day.

It is hard to find much fiber at all in many packaged foods. Top-selling brands of pasta, breakfast bars, cereal and bread are made with refined wheat. Whole-grain pasta often has triple the quantity of fiber found in popular pasta brands. A cup of cooked brown rice typically has four grams of fiber, or four times the fiber found in refined white rice.

Fiber provides no nutrients, but its ride through the 30-foot digestive tract is greatly beneficial because it helps push along other waste. Soluble fiber, which dissolves in water and is found in oat bran, beans and barley, among other foods, helps prevent excess cholesterol from being absorbed into the blood stream. Insoluble fiber, found in wheat bran and some fruits and vegetables, helps promote regularity.

The decades-old practices of high-speed factory processing purge food of much of its natural fiber. With wheat, for instance, millers routinely separate the small but highly nutritious bran and germ of the raw wheat, leaving only the starchy aftermath, the endosperm, for white flour. That refined flour, which doesn't spoil as quickly as whole-grain flour, allows food companies to produce mass quantities of packaged food faster. But refined flour is also less nutritious, with 77% less fiber, 21% less protein and 54% less calcium than whole-grain flour, according to an analysis of nutrients from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some of the nutrients, but usually not the fiber, are attempted to be restored if the flour is "fortified," but unfortunately, synthetic vitamins are used, which are made from coal-tar, a petroleum by-product, not the real vitamins provided by nature.

Foods that are rich sources of fiber include brown rice, whole wheat, millet, buckwheat, rye, barley, spelt, oats, and beans as well as most fruits and vegetables. Fiber supplements are available for people who need them, but in most cases you should be able to get enough fiber by following a wholesome diet with raw foods consumed at each meal.

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