If fiber can't be broken down by the body, why is it good for nutrition?

It buffers digestion, which is important for sugars. It's why you can eat fruit which is chock full of fructose without it damaging your system too much
 
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It absorbs water like a sponge. When it absorbs water, such as from the vast amounts of water inside your body, it swells. When it swells, it occupies more space, namely in the intestines. When it occupies more space, it pushes out anything that's been lingering too long - a lot of bodily waste sits in the intestines without fiber to work as a natural broom to sweep it out, which means overall less surface area and gut flora available for the actually still bioavailable nutrition being digested.
 
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It isn't good for you. If you eat a shitty diet of mostly sugar and processed garbage, it might help give structure to your feces, but ideally you should be eating very little fiber. You should be digesting the vast majority of whatever you swallow. This is a controversial opinion, but there is a big industry in selling "fiber supplements" like psyllium husk, which would otherwise be literal garbage thrown away. A high fiber diet just means you have more shit inside you, and the bacteria in your gut feeds on it, producing gas, which pressurizes your insides and "helps" you pass the inert matter rotting in your colon.
 
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Albino Blacksheep Refugee said:
A high fiber diet just means you have more shit inside you, and the bacteria in your gut feeds on it, producing gas, which pressurizes your insides and "helps" you pass the inert matter rotting in your colon.
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It's the water the fiber retains, not pressured gas. It's the very fact that humans have so little cellulose-digesting gut flora that allows fiber to perform the function it does.

Holy shit, please refrain from giving nutrition advice when you have less understanding of it than what children are taught in elementary school.
 
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Ibanez RG 350EX said:
It's the water the fiber retains, not pressured gas. It's the very fact that humans have so little cellulose-digesting gut flora that allows fiber to perform the function it does.

Holy shit, please refrain from giving nutrition advice when you have less understanding of it than what children are taught in elementary school.
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I'm fully aware that my opinion is unconventional. The idea that if you don't eat fiber you will necessarily be constipated is simply untrue.
 
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Why is there so much controversy regarding every aspect of human diet and nutrition? It's not like there are 100 different opinions on treating broken bones, cuts, abrasions, etc. but you can find advocates of literally every conceivable type of diet and people who all swear by their own chosen ideas. I don't get it.
 
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David Brown said:
you can find advocates of literally every conceivable type of diet and people who all swear by their own chosen ideas. I don't get it.
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The human digestive system is pretty adaptable and variable between people. Some people really do tolerate certain foods and certain macronutrient ratios better than others. Just look at white people's ability to drink milk as adults compared to every other race.

But there's no "controversy" about something as basic as the function of fiber - all you need is some plant matter and an asshole and it becomes pretty self-evident.
 
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David Brown said:
Why is there so much controversy regarding every aspect of human diet and nutrition? It's not like there are 100 different opinions on treating broken bones, cuts, abrasions, etc. but you can find advocates of literally every conceivable type of diet and people who all swear by their own chosen ideas. I don't get it.
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Because people eat like shit and then feel like shit and want 1 Weird Trick™ to fix it because they're too lazy to educate themselves even when their lives depend on it.

They're exactly as lazy about educating themselves about literally anything and proliferate equally retarded takes about literally everything, it just isn't as glaring when it's not something as simple and universal.

People are retarded man.
 
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Yamamura said:
Are you tell me fruits and vegetables are literally the jannies of food?
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Yes. They even do it for free - you may pay for them, but they're not getting the money.

Edit: Just adding this so I don't doublepost
Due to the nature of how thermodynamics works, you cannot digest 100% of anything. You will always have waste material. The human body and its internal biomes are designed to produce waste, as with any other flesh-and-blood living creature because it's a key part in ecosystemic function. As your intestines are not 100% perfect and cannot always naturally squeeze out excess waste, it relies on secondary measures - usually the natural intestinal flow will push out most waste naturally in the tide of the rest of your waste.
Not all of it. What's left over does add up over time as it's rarely piled in one location, it's usually in creases and wrinkles inside the intestine. Fiber from food gets rid of those leftovers by swelling to the point it can occupy all the nooks and crevices the leftover waste is and push it all out. High fiber is for dietary emergencies and severe cases of constipation, yes, but low fiber is just asking for complications. It should not be a challenge for you to eat a few apples, oranges, and bananas across the week on top of your normal diet. They have additional benefits as well (bananas and oranges provide lots of potassium which I do not need to state the benefits of, and citrus fruits are significant helpers in the prevention of kidney stones) so you should be eating them anyway!
 
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You only really need it if you mainly eat processed foods. Stuff staying in your intestines and rotting is a myth unless you have diverticulitis or other such pockets formed in your intestines. Fiber won't help that. Some gut bacteria can eat it. If you have fiber then it gives them food and helps them out. If you've ever seen prebiotics (not probiotics) it's pretty much fiber that we can't digest but certain gut bacteria love. Fiber can also make you gassy because the bacteria that eat it give off gas when they digest it.

I don't know shit about anything but for some reason I hold the opinion that it doesn't matter unless your gut is really fucked up from processed foods. Yeah it can help some gut bacteria but there's so many different types so I argue that as long as you've got some other beneficial types you could live without those specific ones and be fine. Even those ones eat other stuff too. I think Japanese people have been found to have a gut bacteria that's evolved to efficiently eat nutrients found in seaweed. It's a good niche for bacteria. You get free food. There's water and warmth. The immune system leaves you alone unless you start trashing the place. So there's a lot of bacteria lining up for that niche. Each with different evolutionary histories.
 
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It's not good for nutrition, it's a necessary cope for people brainwashed into eating a bullshit diet. You don't need to eat any fiber and you also don't need to guzzle down half a gallon of water a day either - I mean you do, if you're eating goyslop that blocks you up because your body can't actually digest it.
 
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Fibre has nothing to do with nutrition. It can play a part in digestion, but fibre itself is not a nutritional requirement.
 
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