I was going to keep a few old resolutions around and see if I could make them happen in the oh-nine, but a concerned reader pointed me in the direction of The Fiber Menace, and now I must re-consider.
Okay, reconsideration complete. This gives hooey a bad name. I am told (by said reader) that this guy is serious, and his claims might have some basis in reality. Here's a book review that lends credence to that view.
I have my own opinions, but I would rather let JFB or Western Swing have at it. No punches to the head or below the waist, gentlemen.
3 comments:
"Konstantin Monastyrsky was trained as a pharmacologist, but after immigrating to the US from the Ukraine, pursued a career in high technology. He worked in two premier Wall Street firms: as a senior systems analyst at First Boston Corporation and as a consultant at Goldman-Sachs & Co."
He's an IT consultant on Wall Street? Talk about your misplaced appeal to authority. I would have a hard time taking anything he says seriously, still less this non-sense.
"Monastyrsky explains that human teeth are fashioned to chop flesh and that our digestive system is built to handle mainly protein digestion, with only small amounts of fiber."
Comically wrong. Look at a cat's teeth to see the dentition of an obligate carnivore. Look at a dog's to see those of a more relaxed sort of carnivore. Look at a chimp's to see something much like ours -- an animal that eats whatever is put in front of it, but primarily vegetative matter. The length and relative sophistication of our digestive tract is another clue. This is pretty settled, people.
"Traditional peoples did not drink large quantities of water."
Right, because they'd all die from cholera, not suffer from unseemly "bloat".
"Plus, traditional peoples consumed plenty of fat ..."
No way did traditional peoples (and what the fuck does that even mean?) eat "plenty of fat".
"I developed severe intestinal damage from undiagnosed celiac disease and a hiatal hernia."
Sucks to be you, but, as always, cum hoc ergo propter hoc.
It's hogwash. Go ahead and eat your veg.
Or, and sorry to be so TMI, try Fibersure. Mix it well in a glass of water and you really can't taste anything.
jfb seems to have covered most of it.
The reviewer is from a noted quack farm as well.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticdent.html
There isn't a fiber menace and while there is a wide range of respectable thoughts on nutrition Monastyrsky's views are heterodox.
There are some myths around fiber most prominently that it has a positive effect on colon cancer. That has been throughly debunked.
What fiber does help with:
1. Prevention and Treatment of Heart disease. We are talking here primarily about oats, legumes (not including peanuts), rye and barley.
2. Maintenance of stable blood sugar. Once a diabetic gets their weight under control they can live off insulin pretty quickly if they go to whole grain/high fiber sources of carbs.
3. Relating to 2 - weight control. Fiber makes you feel full more quickly and also doesn't send your body into weird insulin blood sugar cycles which promote fat storage.
4. While there are a ton of reasons for constipation, all other things being equal one will be less constipated if they consume more fiber (and more water for that matter).
All that being said I think the notion of resolving to/focusing on "getting more fiber" doesn't provide much in the carrot or the stick department. I'll point you here:
http://www.superfoodsrx.com/superfoods/
There are a whole lot of really desirable foods there. Pulling from that group as the building blocks of what you eat will largely take care of macronutrient, fiber and anti-oxidant concerns. You can add tilapia on there as well especially if you are concerned with sustainability issues.
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