I read a simple but truly revolutionary book recently called Fiber Menace. It ties in beautifully with so many other things I’ve 
encountered, but really puts it into a common sense perspective. Fiber is indigestible material. It is something that the human body cannot digest. Humans benefit from eating an abundant amount of foods that are fully digestible, not indigestible. Although we are omnivores and can certainly derive energy from fiber-containing carbohydrate foods (only carbs contain fiber), because they are partially indigestible they are not ideal human foods. When suboptimal human foods are overconsumed, disaster strikes in a myriad of ways.
My first encounter with too much fiber came as just a young pup. I grew up in a ?whole-grain family. Many of my breakfasts were the All-American high fiber/high carb champ: whole grain cereal (highly sugar-sweetened Raisin Bran or Bran Flakes usually) with lots of fruit, whole grain toast with jelly, lots of orange juice, and reduced-fat milk (especially as I got older). This is considered a healthy way to start the day, but without modern medicine, this breakfast literally would have killed me.
At age 6 I developed appendicitis, an ailment more common among children:
?Appendicitis is more prevalent among children precisely because their tiny cecum and appendix are so much easier to clog with undigested fiber and large stools [caused by too much fiber in the diet]. – Excerpt from Fiber Menace
I remember being toilet trained as a kid and being teased for my red face, straining painfully to get that rock hard, fiber-filled Kellogg’s brick out of me. This straining, constipation, etc. is exactly what leads to all types of digestive illness, and is a precursor or at least a contributing factor to several others, including Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Hemorrhoids, Irritable Bowel, Diverticulitis, etc.
My second ?menacing? encounter with fiber came when I switched to a primarily vegetarian diet. I ate liberally of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and most of all, legumes. Again, this is hyped up to be a near optimal diet, and I pursued it, of course, in interest of having great health and vitality. After several years of this my stomach pain and gas was so severe (and my health was at its poorest as an adult during this time), that I finally had to make some changes ? more fish and eggs, less beans and lentils.
Fiber clash number 3 came when doing some ?cleanses? using a fiber supplement from Psyllium Husk. Me and the person doing the ?cleanses? with me, both times we tried it, got incredibly (and I mean incredibly) constipated, bloated, cramped up, and frustrated despite the fact that all we were eating was vegetables, fruits, and juices. On one cleanse we did only fresh juices mixed with Psyllium. The results were even worse.
?Fiber from psyllium is probably the most offensive, because it’s at once a bulking agent capable of obstructing the esophagus and intestines, an osmotic laxative capable of causing severe diarrhea, a fermentable biomass that causes acidic damage of the intestinal epithelium, and a severe allergen for some people. And all that besides the cramping, bloating, gases, and severe straining required to expel large stools. -Yet another excerpt from Fiber Menace congruent with my own personal experience.
Simply put, the idea that fiber is an essential component to good health is a complete and total farce. Fiber is considered a remedy for conditions which it is often the cause of (gas, constipation, colorectal disorders, overweight, digestive illnesses). Whole grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and vegetables are not optimal foods for a human being. Simply put, we don’t digest them well. We cannot truly break down cellulose and fiber effectively ? we don’t have four stomachs like a herbivorous animal that can live off of these foods. They are secondary foods that can only be tolerated in moderation, and if they are consumed in abundance, they must be treated with extra special care (sprouting, fermentation, hours of cooking, etc.).
The healthiest human societies ever studied relied heavily upon animal proteins and fats ? the foods that provide the essential tools for cellular growth and regeneration. Unlike carbohydrates, they do not cause detrimental changes to the endocrine system, put strain on the digestive tract, cause metabolic disorders and excessive weight gain, lead to bone, joint, and dental disorders, etc. Cultures like the Eskimo ate animal foods exclusively, consuming truly negligible amounts of carbohydrates and fiber throughout their entire lives ? and are considered among the healthiest humans to have ever been examined. In fact, the Eskimos are unique among Native Americans in that they had no role of Medicine Man in the tribe. Who needs a doctor when no one is sick?
Of course many human civilizations that enjoyed optimal or near-optimal health subsisted off of whole grains, starchy vegetables, and other carbohydrate foods (only after the very recent agricultural revolution). Still, animal products were the mainstay, and fibrous, carbohydrate foods were prepared with ritualistic processes to enhance the digestibility. Polynesians dried, hand-ground, fermented, and cooked taro root (a starchy vegetable similar to the potato). They certainly didn’t go through this arduous process just to pass the time. Breads in other cultures were always made by sourdough fermentation and then cooked, which breaks down indigestible material like the intestines do, allowing yeasts and bacteria to do the work beforehand. Vegetables in many cultures were fermented as in sauerkraut, not just for storage, but for ?pre-digestion.
Cooked and raw (preferably raw) animal products: eggs, fish, red meat, fowl, organ meats, butter, cheese, milk, and kefir are the mainstays of a healthy human diet, and can comprise over 90% of all dietary intake. This is not something to switch over to overnight as all of our digestive tracts have become accustomed to a more varied diet, nor do you need to exclusively eat from the animal kingdom to experience good health, but it is vital information to know with certainty if you are in pursuit of excellent physical vitality and overcoming the obstacles of chronic and degenerative conditions.
And if you read Konstantin Monastyrsky’s Fiber Menace, ignore his advice on switching to white rice, taking a lot of supplements, and a few other foolish tangents he goes on towards the end of the book (like sugar being better than complex carbohydrates). Even really intelligent people have blind spots and say stupid things, but his book contains undeniable and extremely important truths not to be overlooked.
?Basically, we don’t digest whole vegetables and grain well. We cannot utilize that which we cannot digest. — Aajonus Vonderplanitz, PHD and author; recovered from digestive Cancer through a mostly raw animal-foods diet with no supplements or medical treatment.
?The overconsumption of high-carbohydrate grain-based foods such as bran, fibrous breakfast cereals, whole-wheat bread, and soy?is a primary cause of intestinal disease and other diseases. — Jordan S. Rubin, Naturopathic doctor and author; recovered from Crohn’s disease (an ?incurable? digestive illness) after all else had failed, by eating mostly meats, raw dairy products, fats, juices, and properly fermented plant-based foods.
?Don’t eat cereal. Over the long term it causes gas, abdominal pain, endocrine system disorders, food allergy, appendicitis, constipation, and digestive disorders related to constipation. Basically, it’s not that GRRREAT for you. Matt Stone, nutritional blogdork and author; fully recovered without drugs or surgery from numerous mainstream delusional ideas about what comprises a healthy human diet, sans appendix and all.
For more on the perils of plant kingdom overconsumption, please revisit the fantastic contribution made by my great friend and colleague, Pippa Galea.
Hi Matt,
I am really interested to hear of your experiences with psyllium fibre and colon cleansing. I am thinking of doing this cleanse (from blessedherbs.com) but I am waiting until I have weaned my daughter. There are so many positive testimonials about it, it seems like a great thing to do. The thought of mucoid plaque lining our intestines is truly horrendous. If you believe psyllium fibre to be so damaging, what do you suggest instead? Is there a quick fix way of cleansing your bowels? Or is it a case of increasing raw fat intake and waiting?
I have written a post about colon cleansing, here at http://constantstateofflux.wordpress.com/
2007/05/04/the-colon-some-more-information/
I am just counting down the days until I do it, but you have turned this on its head! To tell you the truth, the thought of trying to swallow that stuff leaves me cold – surely we were not designed to consume fibre like that?
I’d love to hear your feelings on this,
thanks.
Well, I think it’s pretty clear how I feel about psyllium husk as a cleansing supplement. I certainly failed on it, but I know others who have had the infamous purge of ropes and all kinds of good stuff while doing a psyllium husk-based cleanse. So I wouldn’t demonize it outright. If you experience problems though, it doesn’t mean you need more water or even more added fiber. Stop the fiber supplement immediately and continue with the dietary components of a good digestive cleanse which typically is comprised of mostly raw fruits and vegetables for 2-5 days.
It’s a good idea to focus on your health after breast feeding. A cleanse will be refreshing no doubt, but do not continue it more than a few days. Then focus on rebalancing the hormones and restoring proper metabolism by eating balanced meals 3-4 times per day. Eat plentifully of raw fats and animal products and rest. This will restore necessary nutrients and assure your body that it is well nourished. This is a must before beginning exercise regiments or doing any other kind of fasting. Do not panic if you gain weight and start an intense cardiovascular and/or fasting regimen to try to burn off the fat! If you do this weight management will perhaps be a struggle for years to come.
Hi Matt
Thanks for this great Blog. I’ve been on Raw animal foods primarily for about 4 years now and I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of fiber. Sometimes I forget how good it feels to be stable emotionally, energy-wise and physically and I venture out, only to be reminded of how powerful this food is and how well a diet of raw animal protein and fat works.
Recently, just for the hell of it, I decided to get a series of colonics. The apparent health of the Hydro-therapist was what swayed me – as he’s 65 but doesn’t look a day over 50 and generally has a really healthy glow about him ? nice skin, good physique, calm. I’m now just finished the 3rd in the series. After the 1st, he convinced me to try Psyllium Husk and some ‘cleansing herbs’ (all, ofcourse, in processed capsule form) in order to really benefit fully from the colonic experience. Being an open-minded guy I’m always up for trying new things ? or, in this case, old things I’ve forgotten don’t work very well (I had tried psyllium husk 10 years ago attempting to solve my, at that time, chronic digestive problems and only ended up feeling more like ass). After a day of the herbs, I felt like I was on fire inside – literally like I was being burned from the inside. I emailed the colonic guy describing my symptoms and he predictably called it a cleansing reaction. I called this prognosis into question, as I’ve been on one cleansing road or another for years and this kind of symptom usually spells trouble in my experience – in other words my body is most probably rejecting something it can’t use or finds highly offensive. I had no idea how these herbs were processed, nor the specific properties of each of the herbs. DUH!
I stopped the herbs and the symptoms quickly subsided. A week later, I was getting extreme digestive discomfort (knots and pain in my colon) and just wasn’t feeling right. I’d wake up feeling like I’d been beaten up. I started poking around online today assuming there might be a connection with the psyllium and I stumbled on here. It was like a light bulb going on. I felt right away this is the problem. I already felt that Fiber was an overblown and distorted issue in general but I think you nailed it perfectly and helped to strengthen my own resolve regarding fiber. I’m stopping the psyllium today and monitoring how I feel over the next couple days. Honestly, I hardly have any fiber in my diet at all and I feel great. My colon is apparently in good health (according to Colon Therapist man who’s been doing this for 30 years) and I normally have zero digestive problems (compared with my previous life before RAF where everything I put in my stomach felt like throwing a stone onto a frozen lake). I’ll take what works over any ideological or theoretical dietary regime any day.
Thanks again,
*J
A friend recently suggested this revised title for one of the popular Vegan Foods bibles:
THE SUNFOOD DIET ADRENAL FAILURE SYSTEM
Amen to that Jameson. Psyllium is a very abrasive and difficult fiber to breakdown. In addition, a diet devoid of fiber greatly decreases the amount of bacteria in your gut for fiber digestion, making it even more indigestible. In a nutshell, there is nothing inherently wrong with natural fiber in natural food. What’s problematic is eating a food with the fiber removed, or eating a fiber with the food removed. Either a food is whole, or it is not. When elements are extracted and disposed of, they can become problematic — especially when fed to the most poorly constituted creatures the world has ever known — 21st century human beings.
It is important to recognize that some people may have the opposite reactions to a healthy diet as most people. But this article seems not about that. This is about people duped by highly-processed, high-profit, high-sugar, mass-produced foods that claim to be healthy. I do not claim to be right or wrong for anyone. But I will attempt to correct some of the potential misunderstandings, piled one upon another and seemingly presumed in this article to apply to everyone.
1. I have often read about Japanese, Mediterraneans Russians or Adventists being the healthiest or longest-lived people, but never Eskimos.
2. I have also read that traditional Eskimos believed in eating the intestinal vegetable matter of prey animals or they would become “sick like the white man.”
3. Centuries of natural selection have probably genetically modified Eskimos for a high-meat diet–as well as Brahmans for a low-meat diet.
4. I would also defy anyone to find anyone well-known who claims that Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes, for which Tony the Tiger is the mascot, is a “health food store” item or a whole grain food or a fiber food.
5. In contrast to no. 4 above–the author of this article can be excused for assuming that “bran flakes” and orange juice are “health foods.” These are popular assumptions.
In the 1970’s, Prevention Magazine promoted raw, unprocessed bran as a healthy fiber source. “Breakfast cereal” corporations distorted this idea, directing consumers to their highly processed and sugary “bran flakes.”
Any high-fiber food has the possible benefit of cleaning the intestines and feeding beneficial bacteria. But also, the potential of becoming a blockage when things go awry. Roasting and adding sugar to bran are good ways to make for a more hard blockage and to promote “bad bacteria” which love sugar.
Orange juice can perhaps be healthy–but has its critics, primarily because of having high sugar and low fiber content. If the author if this article is blaming orange juice for making him sick, then he is contradicting his anti-fiber premise.
6. In the famous documentary, “Supersize Me,” the protagonist gets very sick by eating a high-meat, low-fiber diet. I do not wish to imply that this article promotes the “Supersize Me” diet. However, this article is certainly not well-rounded enough to promote the avoidance of such a disaster.
7. Strangely, I strongly agree with two quotations at the end of the above article: “do not eat cereal” and “avoid high-carbohydrate, grain based foods.”
However, those quotes are not saying, “fiber is bad.” They are saying that healthy fiber is digestible, mild on the human system and contains an abundance of moisture, vitamins and minerals. I.e., healthy fiber is the fiber that humans have been adapted to for millenia, and for this reason, continue to be ubiqitous in the vast majority of gardens and “salad bars”: lettuce, cabbage, string beans, chicory, parsley.
There are exceptions for every rule. People with diverticulitis, IBS or OIC might need to avoid fiber. However, those who eat the right kinds of fiber for years are reducing the risk of such problems by exercizing the colon. The colon can be described as primarily a series of muscles to push food along. If muscles are not exercised, they atrophy. If the muscles of your colon atrophy, you risk of a very uncomfortable old age. For which a doctor may prescribe prune juice and other second-rate fiber sources. But probably too little, too late.
Whatever your dietary preferences, you can probably improve your health with a large “garden salad” every day. When this is not possible, one apple and one psyllium capsule may work well as a standby. In Asia, it is often not safe to eat raw vegetables. Therefore, eating generous amounts of “stir fry,” or of gently cooked onions, string beans and broccoli, is popular in Asia and is probably almost as healthy.
Please note that nothing could be more different from my “living fiber” suggestions than the extremely dry and potentially concrete-like bran flakes which apparently caused a lifetime of distress and broad assumption to the author of the above article.