Understanding that this is a zero carb / carnivore thread and topic, and that “toxins” tend to be refined carbohydrates, chemically created food-like stuffs and industrial refined seed oils (“light machine oil” as Ivor Cummins has come to call it), all those toxins are not found in the carnivore eating approach. So the nuance here is that fibre is needed or superfluous based on the underlying base way of eating.
Here is another angle to look from about fibre. Many well-read keto-carnivores understand that fibre is not an essential nutrient. But what we eat can be made up of more than maximised nutrient content.
So if we look at the way we eat and the why we eat a discussion point appears.
In the CICO model of low fat high carb dieting to lose weight there is a stipulated role for fibre in terms of creating a volumetric sense of fullness. Fullness may not directly equate to what a ketogenic eater understands as satiety, a contented hormone based satiety. That said, there are stretch receptors on the stomach that are activated by food volume that result in fullness signals being sent to the brain to stop eating.
So another role for fibre is in satiety. It can be observed in carnivore newbies the surprise at how much non-plant food that they eat. Many comment that they feel ‘hungry’, or even ‘ravenous’ as they adapt to the way of eating. The change in protein intake, thankfully, does not heavily impact the body weigh metric. And, if it does, it can be argued to be due to lean body mass.
I was listening to Ted Naiman and Gabor Erdosi on podcasts this past week. I find them to be knowledgeable low carb commentators. Both mentioned the benefit (to them) of periodization of their carbohydrate intake, that is, only eating carbohydrates at a specific time, usually at the evening meal and only after the main protein and fat containing foods have been eaten. Their diets remain low carbohydrate in the ketogenic range. The carbohydrates are whole food sourced (e.g. fruit).
Ted Naiman, in particular, talks about the possible dietary advantage of this small amount of fibre and carbohydrate intake in terms of achieving a longer period of satiety from that meal. Subsequently it becomes an aid in the ease of long term, habitual time restricted eating (and intermittent fasting for those that way inclined).
Dr. Naiman even goes as far as to postulate a possible glycogen leverage effect. Where a hunger is generated in a carnivore eater where their body seeks to fulfil a minimum glycogen repletion requirement through dietary carbohydrate.
Carnivore and fasting don’t seem to fit as well together as nutritional ketosis and fasting, except of course in the broad range of overlap between carnivore and nutritional ketosis.
So fibre may be advantageous in terms of satiety as a nuanced, detailed dietary tweak. Especially for those who feel ravenous hunger on a non-plant way of eating.
Good carnivore read.