Comment by crdrost | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crdrost | Hacker News Reader

> Additionally, dietary fiber from whole grains, cereals, and vegetables was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, while dietary fiber from nuts and seeds reduced the risk of CVD-related death by 43%

Importantly, as HN folks seem to like supplements, you should be aware that most fiber supplements and additives are soluble [edited -- originally said "insoluble"] fiber, while all of these sources give you a mixture of soluble and insoluble fiber. This mixture appears to be necessary to get the full benefit from fiber—Dr. Lustig describes it very memorably as saying that the insoluble fiber creates a sort of “mesh net” and the soluble fiber “plugs the holes” in that net, which combine together to coat the inside of the upper intestine (the duodenum) and reduce early absorption of calories, so that they ferment more and feed your gut microbiome.

So, to supplement, supplement with snack-sized bell peppers or mixed nuts or fresh green beans or so, rather than a pill or a fiber shake.

This also means that it is very hard to actually control for and isolate that this was due to the fiber rather than the lifestyle. So maybe just find produce that you find delicious and eat it for deliciousness’ sake, trusting the fiber thing to work itself out?

> Importantly, as HN folks seem to like supplements, you should be aware that most fiber supplements and additives are insoluble fiber

This is untrue, most supplements are soluble fiber.

Yep, the best selling fiber supplements on Amazon right now are made of wheat dextrose, polydextrose, and psyllium husk, all of which are forms of soluble fiber.

Sorry, you're right, got that switched around in my head.

YES

It is also critical that nuts, vegetables, legumes, etc. have enormous varieties of micronutrients, which are ultimately critical to health.

Not only are micronutrients key to long-term health, they are also key to satiety, which is key to avoiding weight gain.

If your diet is missing some nutrient or micronutrient, it will keep prompting you to eat until it finds enough; and it won't be concerned that the extra calories needed to obtain that micronutrient will cause excess fat gain.

The biggest two changes I've made in the last few years are growing a small garden to augment lunch with just-picked spinach, mustard greens, arugula, lettuce, etc. and adding a 75g bowl of mixed nuts (generally almonds, walnuts, pecans, & cashews) with a bit of natural honey or olive oil to lunch. I've never felt as healthy, found it as easy to maintain weight, and yet eating what I want. I wish I'd used the nut 'hack' back when I was in international sports competition...

>This also means that it is very hard to actually control for and isolate that this was due to the fiber rather than the lifestyle.

Always is. Is it the fiber, or is it that healthy people intake more fiber. Those foods aren't cheap if you live in a food desert either.

Oatmeal is cheap and widely available. It contains a specific soluble fiber[0] that has strong evidence for lowering blood cholesterol, and weaker evidence for various other health benefits. It's also very quick and easy to cook in a microwave oven. I eat it every day.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oat_beta-glucan

But I’ll add: if you think you don’t like oatmeal because packet or microwave oats aren’t doing it for you, making steel cut oats (not quick oats of any kind) in something like an instant-pot yields crave-worthy oatmeal, IMO.

1:3 ratio of steel cut oats to water, 5 minutes and natural release. I make 150g oats at a time and that yields 4 portions.

Add banana, walnuts/pecans, cinnamon, maple syrup. I wake up excited to eat them every day.

This also means you probably refrigerate some for the next day, which increases the "resistant starch" content, which might make them even healthier for you.

That sounds like a severe glucose overdose.

I’m never liked oatmeal generally prepared in the US. Then I flew to Australia and on quantas they served Muesli which is essentially rolled oats and milk with fruit which was delicious. So it turns out I liked oatmeal just not cooked down into mush. In the states I found bobs red mill which is my standard choice and I get the gluten free one not because I am avoiding gluten it just tastes better than their regular one.

FYI oats are one of those foods that are doused in roundup for efficient desiccation during harvest in the US. No clue if organic oats are dried with equivalent chemical inputs or otherwise concerning processes. After all, leaving oats to slightly mold/mildew isn't exactly great for human health either, but might be the comparable method of choice (for all I know) to shave a few pennies off the per pound harvest costs.

Those foods specifically aren't cheap foods but foods high in soluble and insoluble fiber can be found very cheap. Whole grains are high in insoluble fiber while black beans and oats are high in soluble fiber.

Most veggies are reasonably high in both. Go to a farmer's market if you can afford it. If not, go to a cheap (often ethnic) grocery store.

I take this: https://yerba.com/product/colon-care-formula/

it claims to provide both soluble and insoluble fiber.

I eat a ton of mixed nuts, steel cut oats with fruit daily, and other things anyway but without the Colon Care things don't go very well in the bowel department, partially due to side effects from medications I take.

Shouldn't it be obvious to anyone that consuming nutrients from food is better than pills? I mean to me it's self evident that eating an orange is better than a vitamin C pill. If anything else because we don't know what other "vitamin" type things exist that are missing in the pills, or that the ratios in the pills are wrong, or that there's contaminants in the pills, and the list goes on.

very much one of those things that people highly steeped in scientific method would often say, "why? if the pills contain the identical chemical compounds why would it be different" ?

See also: "a calorie is a calorie", "organic produce is useless", etc.

This is a valid point. And it is a valid (and very important) question, for a scientist. However, there is an obvious answer that needs a ton of investigation. The "container" of a vitamin C pill vs a citrus fruit (or any vitamin C rich vegetable) vastly different. And in both cases, they are interacting with a system that has a mind-numbing number of variables, most of which are only poorly understood if even accounted for at all.

But ignoring all those microbiome + immune/endocrine system + (human) cellular metabolism variables, I pose this question in response:

The ammonium nitrate in human urine and TNT explosives is chemically the same. Why would it have any different effect regardless of the form?

Sure but you know how you look at science from 100 years ago and you realise a lot of things were wrong? The scientific method ensures we approach the truth bit by bit, but doesn't prevent misteps or partial information. So one can be more sure about some things than others. A calorie is a calorie is more "fundamental" science than "is eating an orange the same as eating a pill", so I trust that more. Because the fact of the matter is that some % of the things we know of today as true science will be proven false later, since that has happen since the dawn of time, and it's hard to know which ones.

People love their quick fixes and pills because it's easier than a lifestyle change.

In the case of fiber, where it has been intentionally reduced or removed from many foods (ie bread) to make consumption easier (fast food)

> consuming nutrients from food is better than pills?

In the case of fiber; the goal is the opposite of consuming nutrients...

And real food is also insoluble fiber (ie Corn and Peanuts)

Psyllium husk (Metamucil) is soluble fiber. Cellulose (Citrucel) is insoluble.

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