Is Fiber Really Beneficial? Amber O'Hearn Flips an Assumption on Its Head

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #33

( Can’t resist… )

Really?

Whoever came up with the idea that brining the big beast above down, and then butchering it was a better idea than digging roots out of the ground…?

Maybe they got elected President…

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #34

I’m sure the first person who thought digging a skinny root out of the ground to eat was a good idea met uncomprehending stares from her family: “You’re kidding, right? Where’s the beef.”

#35

Maybe you can enlighten us on why the elephant has a large brain… Yet it doesn’t consume :meat_on_bone:

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #36

Maybe you can?

I’m sure you are talking about proportionate brain size… Right?

Up next: Why elephant feet are bigger than human feet…

#37

I’m not because it’s a fairy tale. There’s no compelling science to back up what you’re saying. Every specie has its intelligent and not so intelligent animals including humans.

Not bad for an animal limited by it’s biology.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #38

People forever ask for the single thing that distinguishes humans from all other animals, on the supposition that this one magical property would explain our evolutionary success—the reason we can build vast cities, put people on the moon, write Anna Karenina and compose Eroica . For a while it was assumed that the secret ingredient in the human brain could be a particular type of neuron, so-called spindle or von Economo neurons, named for Baron Constantin von Economo (1876–1931).

But we now know that not only great apes but also whales, dolphins and elephants have these neurons in their frontal cortex. So it is not brain size, relative brain size or absolute number of neurons that distinguishes us. Perhaps our wiring has become more streamlined, our metabolism more efficient, our synapses more sophisticated.

As Charles Darwin surmised, it is very likely a combination of a great many different factors that jointly, over the gradual course of evolution, made us distinct from other species. We are unique, but so is every other species, each in its own way.

doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0116-22
https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_vis=1&q=doi%3A10.1038%2Fscientificamericanmind0116-22&btnG=

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(Bob M) #39

Not to mention dangerous. Very few animals can kill you (when you eat them), but plants are a different story. Have a plant near me with nice looking, but deadly, berries.

Here it is:

(Central Florida Bob ) #40

Not to barge in too much, but you should also consider this paper on nutritional epidemiology:

Same author, much more recent.

His main point is

“In recent updated meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies, almost all foods revealed statistically significant associations with mortality risk. Substantial deficiencies of key nutrients (eg, vitamins), extreme over consumption of food, and obesity from excessive calories may indeed increase mortality risk. However, can small intake differences of specific nutrients, foods, or diet patterns with similar calories causally, markedly, and almost ubiquitously affect survival?”

In other words, everything we eat is killing us faster and sooner, or making us live longer, and he asks if that’s even possible. Everything ? Nothing is neutral or has no effect?

Doing deep breathing exercises. This is one of those “don’t get me started” subjects.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #41

Birth has 100% probability of death. As Jim Morrison famously sang, no one gets out alive.

#42

I am what the Universe is playing with right now. (misquoting Alan Watts)

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #43

He says early on in the article that one meta-analysis showed that three cups of coffee a day extended lifespan by twelve years. If that’s the case, I’m going to live FOREVER! :bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon:

(Central Florida Bob ) #44

To borrow a quote from someone else:

Assuming the meta-analyzed evidence from cohort studies represents life span–long causal associations, for a baseline life expectancy of 80 years, eating 12 hazelnuts daily (1 oz) would prolong life by 12 years (i.e., 1 year per hazelnut) , drinking 3 cups of coffee daily would achieve a similar gain of 12 extra years, and eating a single mandarin orange daily (80 g) would add 5 years of life. Conversely, consuming 1 egg daily would reduce life expectancy by 6 years, and eating 2 slices of bacon (30 g) daily would shorten life by a decade, an effect worse than smoking. Could these results possibly be true?

Before you order your yearly 23 pounds of hazelnuts, hold on a minute. It stretches credulity to think all of those could be true. One year of extra life for every hazelnut eaten daily? Or 6 years less life for one egg eaten daily? What happens if you have one hazelnut and and one egg daily? Do the effects cancel? Does only one year cancel, so you only die 5 years sooner?

(Tracy) #45

Here is my experience in a nutshell:

I had been eating a huge bowl of high fiber cereal every day for about 6 months. One day my stomach feels like it’s going to explode with gas. Every time I ate or drank even water, you could hear the grumbles across the room. I went to a bariatric specialist because I thought something had gone wrong with my gastric bypass. He diagnosed it as borborygmus. He introduced me to Keto. I saw him about 9 months later and reported that the borborygmus vanished and he said it’s probably because I’m eating less fiber. I introduced fiber back into my diet in the form of flax and Lupin Flour. The gas and bloating happens but not as severe because I get less than 25 grams of fiber per day, but I believe fiber is what caused it.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #46

@Iwanttobelieve

Read the OP article. Many of the posts are also quite informative re personal experiences.

Also this one:

(Doug) #47

No problems either way here, with a lot of fiber or very little. But I’ve always seen what seem to be relatively long times for human digestion stated. Apparently, there is quite a range of time that is considered normal.

I googled “How long for food to transit the human digestive system?” From the first websites that came up:

This time varies from person to person but is usually around 24 hours for someone with a fiber rich diet.

*In general, it can take 24 to 44 hours from the time you eat food to the time it leaves your body as waste. *

The average digestion time food spends in the large intestine varies by gender, the average being 33 hours for men and 47 hours for women, according to the Mayo Clinic.

40 to 50 hours.

Digestion is a complex process that takes place in your gut, and, from eating to excretion, lasts around 50 hours on average.

A stomach that functions properly will empty in 4 to 6 hours. Food generally takes 5 hours to move through the small intestine and 10 to 59 hours to move through the colon.

It can take between four and 11 hours for food to pass into the large intestine (six to eight is average), and it will spend up to 70 hours there before being excreted (the average is 40).

Studies have shown that the entire process takes about an average of 50 hours for healthy people, but can vary between 24 and 72 hours, based on a number of factors.

*In general, food takes 24 to 72 hours to move through your digestive tract. *

The body typically digests foods within 24 to 72 hours.

In a healthy adult, transit time is about 24–72 hours.

All in all, the whole process — from the time you swallow food to the time it leaves your body as feces — takes about two to five days, depending on the individual.

(Polly) #48

Opposable thumbs is the feature which distinguishes humanity from other animals.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #49

See this, where 3 characteristics that distinquish us from everyone else are discussed:

(Edith) #50

We are actually not the only animals with opposable thumbs.

(Jane) #51

Raccoons don’t technically have opposable thumbs but they can manipulate complicated mechanisms with their hands.

(Edith) #52

You should see how good they are stealing the suet from our suet feeder. It turned into an arms race. :rofl: