Comment by xenonite | Hacker News Reader

Comment by xenonite | Hacker News Reader

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In general, I agree that most literature recommends to maintain fiber in the diet. However, this depends and there is research on diets that reduce dietary fiber. Let me refer you to recent articles

in Cell Host & Microbe: https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/abstract/S1931-3128(2...

> we found that a fiber-free diet ameliorates colitis by altering the intestinal localization of a specific gut pathobiont that is required to trigger CD-like disease in genetically susceptible mice. Mechanistically, fiber-free diet inhibited the ability of mucin-degrading microbes to supply critical molecules that are required for the metabolism and maintenance of the disease-causing pathobiont in the mucus layer.

or in Gastroenterology: https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(23)05306-4/...

> Fiber free exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is an effective steroid-sparing treatment used to induce clinical remission in children with Crohn’s disease (CD).

I hope it becomes apparent that having fiber is not the solution to everything. Above papers administer fiber-free diets for treatment.

Other diets focus on the exclusion of certain fibers, like for example, in the widespread and clinically approved FODMAP diet. Hence, it also depends on the type of fiber.

Your first two examples are for severely abnormal GI function. The latter of the two, EEN, is also a short-term diet that is intended to induce remission of symptoms, at which point presumably whole foods are reintroduced.

Finally, the low FODMAP diet is not intended to eliminate FODMAPs nor is it intended to be used long term. From the inventors of the low FODMAP diet:

"Given the adverse changes in gut microbial populations associated with long-term adherence to a low FODMAP diet, we always encourage people to enter a re-challenge phase and under the guidance of a dietitian, find an acceptable balance between the occasional inclusion of moderate and high FODMAP foods (naturally rich in healthy prebiotics) and adequate symptom control. In the long-term, we advocate people follow the least restrictive diet necessary. Further research into the rechallenge and long-term maintenance phases of the diet is warranted."

https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/low-fodmap-diet-provides-b...

There is a big difference between saying "fiber is not the solution to everything" which I never said, and what the OP said which was to recommend no fiber at all, 0%.

You are citing studies on specific narrow medical conditions where a limiting of fiber had some impact. Yes, you can probably find narrow medical conditions that would benefit from any diet you want to support. You can find medical conditions that support 100% fat, 100% carb, 100% protein. Those are niche cases with specific needs.

That isn't what the general regular human would need.

This is like saying, "we've found that in some specific cases, excess water leads to drowning, thus we recommend a water free diet."

Maybe not you. But it is really awful how many people are really eating unhealthily based on this kind of miss-interpretations, and in some cases out right marketing manipulation.

Yes it is a huge field, and there are a lot of different types of fibers, with hundreds of knock on effects. This is one of those fields where there a lot of variables, it is complex, so super easy to purposely confuse people. To then say, we don't need it?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9511151/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29566200/

https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/advance-article/do...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026156142...

One that is balanced on Pro/Con in different situations

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/13/2641

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652...

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