Diets Debunked

I’m sure you’ve been scrolling social media recently and have come across a carnivore bro spouting that “fibre isn’t essential” “it’s the leading cause of gas and bloating” and “its’ a pure gut irritant”. Just like carbs, many of the meat heads like to demonise fibre as it does not contain an essential nutrient which is required to prevent deficiency.

Let’s break down these claims and explain why this advice is, at best, idiotic, and at worst, dangerous.

The lies of fibre “not being essential”

I want to preface this post by saying that just because something does not contain an essential nutrient does not mean that the compound it isn’t essential in and of itself.

Our definition of an essential nutrient is essentially a nutrient which is required for biological processes (for example, making ATP, also known as energy) that the body cannot make itself. The definition of essential nutrients only concerns itself with nutrients that are required for biological processes which are essential to survive. It does not consider other compounds which aren’t nutrients (like fibre), nor does it concern itself with reducing risk factors for disease and improving health outcomes outside of the scope of deficiency diseases.

Effectively, yes, fibre is not an essential nutrient. That is because it is not a nutrient in the first place, and equally, if we don’t have fibre, we aren’t going to die because we can’t make ATP or perform other critical bodily processes. This does not mean, however, that eating no fibre is optimal to health. On the contrary; fibre is crucial for overall health and wellness, preventing disease and overall improving longevity and quality of life.

Fibres’ impact on our bowels

Different types of fibre do different types of things to our stools. Insoluble fibre adds bulk, which will stimulate our guts peristalsis (the reflex which pushes poo through our GI tract), therefore increasing transit time. This is great for people with constipation, as often this is caused by slow transit.

Soluble fibre on the other hand will absorb water, creating a gel-like substance. This thickens up loose stools, and loosens hard stools, making bowel movements more regular and easy to pass.

We should be opening our bowels a minimum of 3 times per week, and our bowel movements should be regular, not forced or strained, and should be between a type 3 and 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart.

It genuinely baffles me the number of carnivores who talk about their abnormal bowel movements and act like they are a good thing. Steak and Butter Gal regularly talks about how her bowels are “so efficient I only need to go once per week” and “smooth like butter”. This is not normal. Opening your bowels once per week means you have a very slow moving colon, with food sitting there for up to 7 days before it is eliminated. The only reason her bowel movements are smooth like butter is because of the obscene amount of pure fat she consumes. She should be concerned that waste is sitting within her body for such a significant amount of time. If you are only going once per week, you are considered constipated and need to do what you can to improve this.

Our microbiome and how fibre makes it better

I also want to point out here, that whilst fibre is not an essential nutrient to us, you know what it is an essential nutrient for? Our gut microbiome. Those friendly freeloaders who digest the fibre, produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA’s) which have a whole host of benefits to our body. These SCFA’s can:

1. Reduce intestinal permeability by promoting the creation of tight junction proteins, reducing overall inflammation in the body as well as helping the immune system by acting as a barrier to pathogens;
2. Travel within the blood stream to the brain and promote the creation of tight junction proteins there, reducing cognitive impairment and dementia risk, as well as reducing symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease;
3. Stimulate the immune response within the gut which can further risk infection via the gut;
4. Suppress uncontrolled cell growth (around the body but particularly in the colon) which can provide more time for the immune system to pick up and destroy these cells before they spread too far into a cancer, such as bowel cancers;
5. Regulate the breakdown and remaking of bone cells, promoting bone density and reducing risk of osteoporosis;
6. Preventing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TMAOs, which reduces our risk of cardiovascular disease.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what the production of short chain fatty acids can do for our body and our overall health.

Not to mention, eating more fibre also improves the bacteria diversity of the microbiome, and will reduce the number of negative pathogens growing within our microbiome. Less diversity and higher levels of “bad” gut bacteria such as Firmicutes and Fusobacterium can reduce the amount of natural GLP-1 our body produces, making us more hungry and more likely to gain weight and struggle to keep it off. Certain “bad” bacterial strains have been indicated to be related to the development of PCOS and endometriosis. More of the “good” bacteria has been shown to improve metabolic function and reduce risk of diabetes, even lowering cholesterol.

Feeding our gut bacteria, therefore, is a key factor in improving all facets of our health and wellbeing. The only way we can do this is to provide our gut bacteria with fibre (soluble to be specific) and resistant starch (a type of starch which acts like a fibre) for them to digest, grow and strengthen. A diet with no fibre does not feed the microbiome adequately. It is a diet which is associated with much lower bacterial diversity, a much higher proportion of the “bad” gut bacteria, and much poorer health outcomes in the future.

Other impacts of fibre on health

Fibre doesn’t just keep our bowels regular and feed our microbiome however. It also has some more obscure benefits outside of this:

• Higher fibre diets can lower your cholesterol. Essentially, the cholesterol in our body is excreted in our bile acids and then reabsorbed later in our gut. Soluble fibre in particular will bind to this cholesterol and reduce the absorption rate, further reducing cholesterol levels.
• Higher fibre diets are associated with a reduced post-meal blood sugar spike, and can help manage blood sugar levels. This is helpful for those of us with insulin resistance or diabetes!
• Higher fibre diets slow down your digestion. This keeps you fuller for longer and is associated with a greater ability to lose weight and keep it off.
• Higher fibre diets are associated with a reduced prevalence of depression.
• Higher fibre diets have an 11% reduction in all-cause mortality associated with every 10g of dietary fibre eaten.

Fibre is something we should all be eating more of. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey shows that the average person in the UK is eating between 17.3-19.7g of fibre per day, far short of the 30g recommendation for optimal health. Influencers parroting that fibre is not essential and is actually bad for us is absolutely ridiculous, and could be having far-reaching consequences on people’s overall health well into the future. So, in conclusion; eat more fibre. Your health (and your microbiome) will thank you.