Here’s another “I Told ‘Em!” One of those things where I was ahead of current thinking by 20 -30 years or so.
As long ago as 1983 I was saying: if fiber was good for us, we could all get healthy by chopping up the carpets and eating those. I never accepted the story whole.
Now, decades later, it seems there is proof I am right!
A new study has shown that a high-fiber diet does not lower a person’s risk of diverticulosis, but a low-fiber diet might, according to a new study published in the February 2012 issue of the journal Gastroenterology. That contradicts what doctors have believed for decades.
Of course, what really does the good it the nutrients present in whole food in its natural state. Fiber is just an incidental. That’s only logical. The definition of fiber is stringy stuff that does NOT get digested. It affects the appearance of our stools but has no nutrient value.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine analyzed data from more than 2,100 patients, aged 30 to 80, who underwent outpatient colonoscopy between 1998 and 2010. The patients were interviewed about their diet, bowel movements and level of physical activity.
Patients with the lowest fiber intake were 30 percent less likely to develop diverticulosis than those with the highest intake!
Moreover, they also found that constipation was not a risk factor, which would surprise many.
Having more frequent bowel movements was linked to an increased risk and that too would surprise many. Those with more than 15 bowel movements a week were 70 percent more likely to develop diverticulosis.
In addition, no association was seen between diverticulosis and physical inactivity or intake of fat or red meat.
Diverticulosis affects about one-third of U.S. adults older than 60. I don’t have any figures for Europe or the Antipodes.
The real use for fiber is as a pre-biotic. It provides a structure for probiotic organisms to thrive.
SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, news release, Jan. 23, 2012
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