June 11, 2025 • 29 mins
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--
The carnivore diet community claims fiber is unnecessary, even harmful. But what does the science actually say?
Learn why fiber does far more than "keep you regular," how eliminating it affects everything from muscle building to longevity, and how to make evidence-based decisions about fiber intake for your goals.
Main Takeaways:
- Fiber produces short-chain fatty acids that reduce inflammation and enhance muscle protein synthesis
- Going zero-fiber may provide short-term symptom relief but creates long-term health risks (15-30% higher disease rates)
- The carnivore claims about fiber being "non-essential" ignore massive benefits for satiety, hormones, and gut health
- Smart approach: Address root causes of digestive issues rather than eliminating all fiber permanently
Related Episode:
Timestamps:
0:01 - The fiber war (Carnivore vs. mainstream nutrition)
4:30 - What fiber actually does beyond BMs
5:51 - How fiber affects muscle building and hormone production
8:33 - The carnivore honeymoon period and what happens long-term
11:56 - Gut bacteria changes and health consequences
14:58 - Debunking carnivore claims about fiber
19:53 - 15-30% lower all-cause mortality with higher fiber
21:37 - How to optimize fiber intake
24:56 - The surprising link between gut bacteria and protein synthesis for building muscle
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
The carnivore diet community has declared war on
fiber.
They claim it's completelyunnecessary, even harmful, that
humans evolved to thrive on meatalone and plants are just
making us sick.
Meanwhile, mainstream nutritionscience treats fiber as one of
the most important dietarycomponents for health and
longevity.
So someone has to be wrong.
(00:21):
Here Today, we're cuttingthrough the noise with actual
data.
You'll discover what fiberreally does in your body beyond
keeping you regular, whyeliminating it might be
sabotaging your goals, and howto make an evidence-based
decision about fiber that'sright for your situation.
(00:49):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, certifiednutrition coach, philip Pape,
and today we're going to settleone of the most heated debates
in nutrition Do you actuallyneed fiber, or is it just an
outdated piece of dogma from theplant lovers?
The carnivore movement isgrowing really fast, and I think
(01:10):
this is an important topic,because people are claiming that
eliminating all plants,including fiber, has transformed
their health, and they may notsay you need to eliminate fiber,
but they may say it's no bigdeal to eliminate it.
And then, on the flip side, wehave decades, decades of
research that link fiber intaketo everything from weight
management to disease prevention, to improved gut health, which
(01:33):
happens to be linked closelywith a lot of these positive
outcomes.
And what bothers me about thisdebate is that both sides are
making claims without looking ator describing the complete
picture of what fiber does toyour body.
And of course, I lean moreheavily on criticizing the
carnivore camp because they'rejust outright dismissing
evidence.
But sometimes the other campswill go a little bit overboard
(01:57):
on why we want fiber or maybethey'll miss parts of the
picture.
So today, with this episode, Iwant to examine the evidence,
the biological mechanisms in ourbody, and then figure out what
approach makes sense for you,because you may need more or
less fiber and you will thriveon a certain level for your
goals.
Before we break down thatcontroversy, if you will just
(02:18):
want a simple approach to yournutrition that is flexible, that
doesn't cut things out butrather includes the things you
need, that sets the rightcalorie and macro goals, fat
loss, muscle building phases,without any hype, without any
claims, without any restriction,just practical strategies,
download my free nutritionone-on-one guide.
This has a focus on flexibledieting and body composition.
(02:41):
It's a roadmap to buildsomething sustainable, something
that you can live with andenjoy while still getting your
results.
It's just simple no fluff.
Based on the evidence.
Click the link in the shownotes or go to witsandweightscom
slash free to grab your copy ofmy Nutrition 101 Guide for Body
Composition.
Okay, so let's start with thefiber debate.
(03:01):
What is really going on?
I think it is not about fiber.
I think this is really abouthow we approach nutrition
decisions in general.
Do we make choices based onshort-term feelings and I mean
feeling in the objective way,like how you feel, or the
anecdotal short-term results,short-term being as little as a
(03:21):
few weeks or month, but as longas one to two years in some
cases?
Or do we look at longer-termdata five, 10, 20 years,
lifetime data?
Do we consider the isolatedeffects?
Or do we think about howeverything connects, because our
bodies are guess what a system?
Fiber itself, in fact, touchesalmost every aspect of your
health and physique in ways thatyou might not even realize.
(03:43):
That even I'm learning more andmore about.
It's fascinating your abilityto build muscle, to lose fat, to
maintain energy, to be fuller,to prevent disease and have
long-term health yes, longevity.
All of this is influenced bywhat's happening in your gut gut
health.
Now, this is not a gut healthepisode per se, but you are
(04:04):
massively changing what's goingon down there when you eliminate
fiber, and it takes a while forthat to happen, and we don't
have a lot of research thatshows all of the negative
effects that are probably goingto be realized down the road.
We do have research on all thepositive outcomes from including
it.
So, just to make an assumption,there's probably an opposite
(04:24):
effect when you get rid ofsomething that helps.
We'll see, we'll see.
That's part of the conversationwe're going to get to today.
The carnivore folks are going totell you that the fact that
fiber is so impactful oneverything in your body is
exactly why it works toeliminate it.
They're going to say youeliminate the problematic
component, you eliminate yourproblems.
But let's talk about what fiberactually does, because most
(04:48):
people are thinking of fiberfirst and foremost as like the
scrub brush Sorry to be gross.
It cleans you out, right, keepthings moving, bms, all that
jazz but that's maybe like 20%10 to 20% of what's really
happening when you eat fiber,and this is what I used to
believe too, that it was justfor being regular.
But it's a lot, lot more thanthat when you consume fiber, it
travels through your digestivesystem unchanged until it
(05:11):
reaches your colon and thensomething remarkable, something
fascinating, happens.
The bacteria there that areliving in your gut and you have
trillions of bacteria they usethat fiber as fuel to produce
compounds.
Those compounds are short chainfatty acids.
And these aren't just wasteproducts, right?
People say, oh, they're wasteproducts of your digestion.
(05:31):
They are molecules that go intoyour bloodstream, they travel
throughout your body and theyhave an impact on your
inflammation, on your immunefunction, even on how your
muscle tissue responds toprotein responds to protein.
Yeah, fiber intake canpotentially affect your muscle
building and I've worked with alot of lifters who have strength
trained for many years.
A lot of them went on carnivorebecause they couldn't quite
(05:52):
figure out how to control theirbody fat, their belly fat, all
that stuff.
And we gradually reintroducedplants and a more diverse diet
and their gains started to takeoff like they hadn't in a long
time.
Part of it was carbohydrates,for sure.
Part of it was fiber, and itall worked just fine.
In fact, they felt better, theyhad better outcomes.
But I don't want to anecdotallysay well, just because you feel
(06:15):
better in the moment, thatmeans it works.
That is not what I want to say,because that's exactly the
claim carnivore folks make, andit's misleading, because
short-term results may belielong-term results.
There's more, though, beyondthis right Soluble fiber.
That's the one that createslike a gel in your substance.
It's like a gel-like substancein your stomach.
That's what slows down theabsorption of nutrients, and so
(06:37):
that is what's really awesomefor blood sugar control.
People talk about eatingbalanced meals, managing your
blood sugar.
It does that, but not only that.
It dramatically increases yoursatiety signals, helping you
feel satisfied with fewercalories.
Now you might say, well,protein does that, and I have
lots of meat in my diet.
Great, I agree.
Like increasing your protein inyour diet does help
(06:58):
tremendously with satiety, butfiber also has a huge impact on
satiety, to a level where, whenyou're going after some
aggressive fat loss, for example, it could be the difference
between being able to sustainyour diet and not being able to
really stick with it for longenough.
There's also something reallyfascinating about fiber in
(07:18):
today's context.
You guys heard of GLP-1, thehormone targeted by the weight
loss drugs like Ozembic.
Well, guess what fiber does?
It increases the production ofGLP-1, the hormone targeted by
the weight loss drugs likeOzembic.
Well, guess what fiber does?
It increases the production ofGLP-1.
It's kind of like a small micro, natural version of what people
are paying all this money for,not to the same dosage,
absolutely it's not going tohave the same degree of impact.
Let's be nuanced about it.
(07:38):
But just by eating plants likeeating what you should be eating
a diverse diet you're going toactually improve your production
of GLP-1.
By the way, you know what elsecan improve.
It Is strength training.
This is not about strengthtraining, but I always have to
slip that in.
Another thing is related tohormones.
We've seen that fibers link tohigher testosterone levels in
(07:59):
men, better hormone balance inwomen and the cascading effect
of all of that, like affectingyour sleep quality and your mood
and your cognitive function.
It all occurs through the gutbrain axis.
You know some people call thegut the second brain.
That is what we are talkingabout.
That's why I said initiallyfibers interwoven in almost
(08:19):
everything that's going on.
So when someone says is justabout pooping, they're missing
like 80%, 90% of what fiberactually does, and to kind of
frame that, then what does it do?
We actually want to talk aboutwhat happens when you get rid of
it when you go, say, fullcarnivore and you eliminate
fiber completely.
(08:40):
And this is where we have to becareful, because the effects
build on each other over timeand they're not all obvious at
first.
And, to be fair, we don't havea lot of long-term studies about
the negative effects, of thepotential negative effects of
these diets long-term.
We just haven't studied themlong enough, like we've studied
other diets, like, for example,the Mediterranean diet, which is
(09:01):
chock full of fiber.
And guess what?
People have incrediblelong-term longevity outcomes on
that diet.
They're high in carbs too, bythe way.
So there's this honeymoonperiod.
We have to address this becausethis is where, like, for example
, the YouTube hater commentsevery time I talk about how
great carbs are and they say, no, I went carnivore and
everything got solved and youdon't need fiber.
Well, many people initially dofeel better when they eliminate
(09:24):
fiber, especially if they haddigestive issues.
It's almost like a confirmationbias the bloating stops, the
gas goes away and they're likeyeah, see, fiber plants, those
were the problem.
But what's really happening isthat you're eliminating the
immediate symptoms, but you'renot addressing the underlying
cause.
How do I know this?
Well, I know this because I'veworked with so many clients to
(09:45):
reintroduce fiber-containingfoods and carbs without the
issues recurring, and I've saidthis on a previous episode you
cannot use an anecdote to provea claim, but you can use an
anecdote to disprove a claim,and what I would like to
disprove here by saying I'veseen many people who went
(10:05):
carnivore and eliminated theirsymptoms and then reintroduced
plants and carbs in the rightway and the symptoms did not
come back.
Well, right, there disproves theclaim that it was carnivore and
carnivore alone that thatsolved the underlying root cause
.
No, the root cause in theircase was certain foods didn't
(10:26):
work for them, period, and wejust eliminated those foods and
reintroduced the rest.
That's all it is.
And I hope for anybodylistening who's doing carnivore
and, like you, know what Ireally miss my sandwiches, or I
miss my fruit, right, or I missmy rice or my oats or anything.
Man, I just had a client heknows who he's talking about
(10:47):
he's going to laugh because I'vementioned him a few times who
just started eating oats andhe's like man, where has this
been my whole life?
It's amazing.
Anyway, we've got to not makeuniversal claims that, okay, I
went on carnivore, cut outplants and fiber, therefore, and
felt better.
Therefore, it's because of allplants and fiber.
That is a false correlation, orit's a correlation, but it's
not cause and effect, it's notcausality.
So let's talk about your gutbacteria.
(11:08):
What happens here then, whenyou don't have the fiber in
there?
Well, they start starvingwithout their fiber fuel and the
beneficial species that produce, for example, anti-inflammatory
compounds start to die off.
Really good species of bacteriawe want in our gut the kind of
things that they put intoprobiotics and you know that you
supplement with those are dyingoff because you're not feeding
(11:30):
them and they get replaced bybacteria that do thrive in low
fiber environments.
And we've identified many ofthese species of bacteria and
found that those tend to be moreinflammatory and less
beneficial.
But again, it takes quite awhile for this effect to
accumulate.
We're talking not weeks ormonths, but potentially years
(11:51):
and as your microbiome shifts,certain things are going to
start to weaken or break down.
You know you've heard of leakygut.
I still think the evidence isout on that being fully the way
it's described.
I think it's described in acolloquial way where, like,
inflammatory compounds leak intoyour bloodstream and then you
have an immune response.
But there is a connectednessbetween your gut and your
(12:12):
bloodstream.
That is real.
And when you don't havebeneficial bacteria and all you
have are these I'll call themharmful or less beneficial
bacteria then it makes sensethat this is going to accumulate
over time in terms of theresponse on your body.
So long-term is where what wehave to look at.
Studies that have beenfollowing people on very low
(12:34):
fiber diets do show increasedrates of cardiovascular disease,
certain cancers, metabolicdysfunction, over time.
We are talking about 15% to 30%increases in disease risk,
based on large populationstudies.
And what concerns me is that thecarnivore success stories or
(12:54):
anecdotes those are allshort-term.
The people that comment on myYouTube videos and say you're
full of it, I did carnivore, Ifeel great, and they've been on
carnivore for two months ormaybe six months or maybe a year
, but it's nowhere near longenough to tell what's going on.
It doesn't mean it's not afantastic elimination diet I
don't discount that that's thecase to eliminate something
that's causing you issues andthen reintroduce, one at a time,
(13:16):
things that don't.
We just don't have good data onwhat happens to people who
eliminate all plants for decades.
And if you want to participatein a massive uncontrolled
experiment and roll the dice on.
Eh, maybe it won't be so badfor me, even though I know a
diverse diet that includes fiberis great for me.
You go right ahead and do that.
(13:37):
I'm just giving you the warningbells with this episode that
there are long-term consequencespotentially to those actions,
Um, let alone the diet just notbeing sustainable or enjoyable.
I mean, if you can only eatthree foods, like a little kid,
and not eat your fruits andvegetables and I'm sorry to be
snarky, cause that's honestlywhat it amounts to Um, and be
(13:58):
happy that way that I'd like tomeet you, because the vast
majority of people I've met whoare in carnivore will say, yeah,
they miss their ice cream orthey miss their pizza or they
miss, you know something, somewhole foods like fruit or
oatmeal or something like that.
Again, I'm throwing outanecdotes too, so maybe I'm
falling prey to the same problemthat other people have, but
(14:19):
again, to me, the anecdote isdisproving the universal claim
that carnivore is the bee'sknees by saying, no, you know
what?
There's plenty of people thatthrive on a plant-based or not
plant-based, but a diverse diet.
Not only that, we have goodevidence, like the Mediterranean
diet, for example I think Ialready mentioned that that show
phenomenal long-term outcomesfrom having a diverse diet,
(14:39):
which makes a lot of sense, andI understand the appeal to
carnivore approach.
It has some level of eleganceand simplicity, right.
It's attractive that you justeat these foods, and there are a
lot of foods that many of uslove, like animal products.
Yeah, who doesn't love that,except vegans and vegetarians?
And many people, yes, do reportinitial improvements, right.
But what I want to do now isanalyze, or examine the
(15:02):
arguments against fiber.
The first claim is that fiberisn't essential.
It isn't essential, meaning youdon't have to consume it to
survive, and there's no RDA.
Yeah, that's technically true,that's technically true.
You know what else?
Carbs technically aren'tessential, and yet we know there
are massive benefits of carbs.
And so just because they're notessential or there's not an RDA
(15:23):
for it, doesn't mean that it isnot extremely beneficial and
almost necessary to have areally solid approach to your
nutrition and your health.
The second claim is that fibercauses digestive problems.
Well, sometimes it does,especially if you increase it
too quickly or if you haveunderlying gut issues, or if you
find certain foods that happento have fiber inflammatory.
(15:46):
Right, you may have IBS, youmay have some other bowel
condition and then, absolutely,you're gonna be more sensitive
to certain types of fiber notnecessarily all fiber, though.
I know plenty of folks with IBSwho they just have to be aware
of what fiber works for them andso I think the solution here
again isn't just eliminateeverything and move on with your
(16:06):
life.
It's maybe eliminate andreintroduce or identify what's
causing you problems.
That's the second claim.
You can't just say all fibercauses digestive problems.
Claim number three is that youcan get everything you need from
animals.
This is maybe one of the worstclaims of all of these, and I
think this ignores just somevery obvious nutritional gaps,
and I don't know how you getaround these except potentially
(16:29):
with lots and lots ofsupplementation.
But then your argument kind offalls flat, because then you're
saying that you need thosethings.
You're just going to get themfrom a different source.
You know where's your vitamin C, your folate, your magnesium,
the thousands of beneficialplant compounds that protect
against cellular damage.
You know that aren'tnecessarily listed on the
nutrition label, right?
Yeah, you're not going todevelop scurvy, but we're not
(16:51):
optimizing for not dying ofdeficiency diseases.
We're optimizing for peakperformance and longevity, right
, the word thrive always comesto mind in this context.
So that's the third claim, that, yeah, you can get everything
from animal products.
Not true at all.
There are so many beneficialthings in plants that you're
probably gonna be sorry youdon't have long-term, especially
for the gut health.
(17:12):
The fourth claim is that humansevolved eating mostly meat.
These ancestral arguments youknow, I used to fall for them
when I was back in my paleo daysand people would cherry pick
the anthropological evidence.
It doesn't support it.
Our ancestors were opportunists.
They ate whatever was available, and that includes significant
amounts of plant matter in mostenvironments, just like there's
(17:32):
no plant-only environments.
I did that episode on the BlueZone hoax and how just about
every society on the planet eatsa diverse diet based on what's
available to them.
Some may eat a lot of honey,some may eat a lot of goat's
milk.
It really depends.
And what we evolved eatingisn't necessarily optimal for
modern life and modern goals.
Or else you know what?
(17:53):
You probably wouldn't be eatingnearly the amount of protein
you need.
Let's just be honest.
If you just naturally ate, youprobably wouldn't have enough
protein.
And of course, I know what thecarnivore guys are saying.
They're like see, that's whyyou need carnivore.
No, that's a false argumentthat we're making segment uh
segment.
The next segment that I have inmy notes is to talk about the uh
what the research shows forstudies with people eating fiber
(18:18):
.
So if you look at largelong-term studies involving
millions of people, there is apattern and that is that higher
fiber intake is consistentlyassociated with lower rates of
chronic disease, with betterweight management, with longer
lifespan.
And if all the claims fall ontheir face, why wouldn't you
just allow yourself to eat fiberwhich gives you more options
(18:39):
for food?
Like to me, that is thesimplest argument.
It's like now you've um re,you've given your permission to
actually enjoy many, many morefoods in your diet.
If you truly and absolutely abore, you hate all forms of
carbs and plants or anythingwith fiber.
You just absolutely hate themall and you're not willing to
include them for any reason,even though it could be
(18:59):
beneficial to get over yourpickiness and train yourself to
like them which you can do, bythe way then I don't know what
to say.
I don't know what to say thatdoesn't seem to strike me as the
vast, vast majority of people.
I think the vast majority ofpeople have normal lives where
they go to parties, they travel,they go places where the food
isn't in their control and theyjust want to enjoy themselves,
(19:22):
not in a hedonistic way, but ina flexible way, what we talk
about here all the time.
If we want to talk aboutspecific studies, there's a 2019
meta-analysis in the Lancet.
All right, a meta-analysis is astudy of studies and it found
that people consuming the mostfiber I mentioned this, I
alluded to this earlier had a 15to 30% lower risk of death from
(19:43):
all causes it's called allcause mortality compared to
those eating the least fiber.
That is a massive effect sizethat shows up across different
populations and different studydesigns.
You hear what I just saidPeople consuming the most fiber
had way lower risk of death thanpeople who consumed the least
fiber.
And what's most important isthat the amount isn't that much.
(20:05):
It doesn't mean you need to eat50 grams of fiber daily.
It means that most people aregoing to benefit from adequate
fiber intake.
What is adequate?
Well, because there's no RDA,as the carnivore people will
tell you.
We've seen from, we've had toextract this from research
comparing these different levels, and it suggests that it's
around 25 to 40 grams, and I'veused a formula before of 14
(20:28):
grams for every thousandcalories you eat.
And now I tend to simplify.
I say look, if you're a woman,go for 25.
If you're a man, go for 35.
You'll be golden.
If you're higher than that,great, no big deal.
There is such a thing aspotentially too high digestively
or hunger-wise.
You know, you might not even beable to eat enough things like
that, but for the vast majorityof people their fiber is
probably too low.
(20:50):
So what's really the point ofthis whole thing?
The point here is not to chooseextremes of anything, even how
much fiber you eat.
It's to optimize it for you.
Optimize.
Look at your situation.
If you're dealing withdigestive issues, you can work
with a practitioner.
You can work with a medicalprofessional, functional
medicine folks there's some goodones out there that work on
this Nutrition coaches of courseI'm going to plug my own work
(21:12):
as well and you can address theroot causes.
And part of that might involvereducing or eliminating fiber
temporarily, absolutely, as inelimination diet, because you
may not know what you have andyou need to get down to the root
cause.
But I will tell you what theroot cause is.
Not gonna be all fiber, justeliminate fiber or eliminate
plants.
The goal should be toeventually include beneficial
plant foods as your gut healthimproves and why not?
(21:35):
That's great, that's reallyempowering, that's freeing,
that's flexible.
And when you do so, you'regoing to focus on fiber variety,
because different types offiber feed different bacterial
species to the level of it couldbe beneficial to eat different
types of apples, different typesof oranges or whatever fruits
you like, because of all thedifferent compounds in the
different species or breeds, orwhatever the word is for those,
(21:57):
because they all feed differentspecies of bacteria.
You want soluble and insolublefibers from different plant
families and guess what?
You monitor how you feel andyou adjust it gradually.
You don't do it all at once,you do one at a time.
You could do carnivore for, say, a month or two as an
elimination diet.
It's a great elimination diet.
And then add in something youthink is very easy on your
(22:17):
stomach, right, a fruit, forexample, that has fiber, maybe
it's oats, something and give ita week, give it two weeks, give
it a month, give it as long asyou need to evaluate.
Hey, you know what?
Actually, I can eat this foodjust fine, no issues whatsoever.
Now, if you spend five yearsand you, one at a time,
(22:38):
introduce every source of fiberand every single one causes you
problems.
I'll eat my shorts that allfiber is an issue for you, but
we can never make the claim thatall fiber is an issue for most
people.
And then, as far as wanting toinclude fiber, leaning into the
benefits you get from it can bevery helpful as a driver to do
this.
The satiety effects make fatloss easier, the metabolic
(22:59):
benefits support muscle building, recovery all of it.
I'm going to give you one morething to think about with fiber
that I learned from some of theguests that I've had on and some
of the latest researchhappening, and that is the
compounds that are produced whenyour gut bacteria ferment fiber
.
Right, because, remember, it'sgreat to eat fermented foods,
but you also ferment fiberyourself in your body.
The body's amazing, it reallyis.
(23:21):
It can enhance get this okaythe compounds produced when that
happens can enhance muscleprotein synthesis, mps.
That's the rate at which webuild muscle, because when the
good bacteria, the beneficialbacteria, break down fiber, they
produce something calledbutyrate, and the butyrate goes
in your bloodstream and has beenshown to improve insulin
sensitivity, specifically inmuscle tissue.
(23:43):
And that means fiber isn't justsupporting digestive health.
It's literally helping yourmuscles use protein more
effectively.
What other great reason isthere than that?
For those of us who are liftingand trying to build muscle,
it's not the only reason, butit's a cool one.
There's also some emergingresearch showing that certain
fiber types can increase theabsorption of amino acids, right
(24:04):
Again broken down from protein,and that improves the muscle
building response to yourtraining.
So the carnivore community'sargument that you can optimize
muscle growth with meat alone, Ithink ignores some of these
pathways right that are tied tothe gut, which a lot of you
there might be even surprised inthis episode that that is the
case.
(24:24):
I used to kind of ignore guthealth, say, okay, that's a side
thing over there.
More people I talk to, the moreI look at the literature and
the more I work with clients, Irealized that the pathways
involved in gut health andhaving the right gut bacteria in
your body, coming from diversefiber consumption, produce
compounds that are beneficial inmany, many, many ways.
And you're making thisanthropological or ancestral
(24:46):
argument.
Maybe we should turn thataround and say you know what?
We probably thrive as humansbecause we can handle a variety
of foods and maybe we should beeating a variety of foods for
that very reason.
Not necessarily these specificfoods, but just diversity in
general.
And that's why I like lookingat the complete picture at the
system, rather than gettingcaught up in dietary dogma.
(25:09):
Because that is what it isthese diets.
They are dogma.
They are rigid, restrictiveforms of thinking that allow for
no disproof of their hypothesiswhatsoever, even though the
counter arguments and evidenceis all around them.
So fiber is not just stayingregular, it's not just
preventing disease, even thoughthose are great things Trust me,
(25:31):
I know when I don't have enoughfiber.
I'm not gonna go into detailsbut it's also a performance
enhancer.
It's like nature's naturalperformance enhancing drug right
.
It's a GLP-1 producer.
It's great for your physiquegoals and I think there's a lot
of mechanisms we're onlybeginning to understand because
gut health is still in its nadir, to use a fun word.
Or is nadir the right?
(25:52):
I think that's the beginning.
Now you got me thinking.
Does nadir mean the peak?
I meant to say fiber is in itsnascent period of research?
Anyway, I'm being a totalgrammar snob right now, forgive
me.
The carnivore versus fiberdebate.
I don't even know why there's adebate, but I think we need
more evidence-based thinking andnot ideological extremes, to
(26:14):
the point where I would say thatan ideological extreme is, by
definition, not evidence-based.
It just has to be, becausenothing is that black and white.
Everything's individualized atthe end anyway, right?
So you can't make those typesof claims.
Eliminating fiber might provideshort-term relief, especially if
you have digestive issues.
But if I'm going to take ananalogy, we've had some water
(26:36):
issues in our house issues.
But if I'm going to take ananalogy, we've had some water
issues in our house, right, if Ihave a problem in the toilet or
speaking of pun intended fiberepisode, or problem with the
sink or whatever, if I shut thewater off to the house, it's
going to eliminate that issue,isn't it?
But it's not fixing the rootcause.
I mean, that's just a simpleanalogy that comes to mind.
So I don't think I have toreiterate the details.
(26:57):
But immune system, hormones,muscle building, disease risk,
longevity it's all improved byhaving higher fiber in your diet
and you don't have to choose aside.
Just look at the completepicture and give yourself
flexibility and figure out whatworks for you.
That's it.
Just don't be extreme, don'trestrict unnecessarily.
I'm trying to give you somepower back here.
That's where I had to go.
That's a journey I had to gothrough.
(27:18):
I used to do paleo, I used to doketo and all that, and it was
always like cut, cut, cut.
What can't, can't, can't I eat?
You don't have to do that right.
Your gut bacteria have beenwaiting millions of years for
you to feed them properly.
They're way older than us.
Don't starve them.
(27:42):
Don't starve those littlebuggers.
They need to eat.
All right, all right, if youwant a nutrition approach for
you, just the simple steps thatgoes along with this to create a
flexible approach that stillmeets your goals.
Download my free guide Nutrition101 Guide Link in the show
notes.
Totally sustainable,science-based approach.
It's personalizable.
It doesn't tell you here's ameal plan, here's what you have
to eat.
No, it says let's figure thisout together for you.
Let's use the right tools tofigure it out.
Go to witsandweightscom slashfree to get your free copy of
the Nutrition 101 Guide.
Until next time, keep usingyour wits, lifting those weights
(28:08):
, and remember, when it comes tonutrition, the best approach is
usually the one supported bythe most evidence, not the
loudest voices or dogmatic camps.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights podcast
.
The carnivore diet community has declared war on
fiber.
They claim it's completelyunnecessary, even harmful, that
humans evolved to thrive on meatalone and plants are just
making us sick.
Meanwhile, mainstream nutritionscience treats fiber as one of
the most important dietarycomponents for health and
longevity.
So someone has to be wrong.
(00:21):
Here Today, we're cuttingthrough the noise with actual
data.
You'll discover what fiberreally does in your body beyond
keeping you regular, whyeliminating it might be
sabotaging your goals, and howto make an evidence-based
decision about fiber that'sright for your situation.
(00:49):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, certifiednutrition coach, philip Pape,
and today we're going to settleone of the most heated debates
in nutrition Do you actuallyneed fiber, or is it just an
outdated piece of dogma from theplant lovers?
The carnivore movement isgrowing really fast, and I think
(01:10):
this is an important topic,because people are claiming that
eliminating all plants,including fiber, has transformed
their health, and they may notsay you need to eliminate fiber,
but they may say it's no bigdeal to eliminate it.
And then, on the flip side, wehave decades, decades of
research that link fiber intaketo everything from weight
management to disease prevention, to improved gut health, which
(01:33):
happens to be linked closelywith a lot of these positive
outcomes.
And what bothers me about thisdebate is that both sides are
making claims without looking ator describing the complete
picture of what fiber does toyour body.
And of course, I lean moreheavily on criticizing the
carnivore camp because they'rejust outright dismissing
evidence.
But sometimes the other campswill go a little bit overboard
(01:57):
on why we want fiber or maybethey'll miss parts of the
picture.
So today, with this episode, Iwant to examine the evidence,
the biological mechanisms in ourbody, and then figure out what
approach makes sense for you,because you may need more or
less fiber and you will thriveon a certain level for your
goals.
Before we break down thatcontroversy, if you will just
(02:18):
want a simple approach to yournutrition that is flexible, that
doesn't cut things out butrather includes the things you
need, that sets the rightcalorie and macro goals, fat
loss, muscle building phases,without any hype, without any
claims, without any restriction,just practical strategies,
download my free nutritionone-on-one guide.
This has a focus on flexibledieting and body composition.
(02:41):
It's a roadmap to buildsomething sustainable, something
that you can live with andenjoy while still getting your
results.
It's just simple no fluff.
Based on the evidence.
Click the link in the shownotes or go to witsandweightscom
slash free to grab your copy ofmy Nutrition 101 Guide for Body
Composition.
Okay, so let's start with thefiber debate.
(03:01):
What is really going on?
I think it is not about fiber.
I think this is really abouthow we approach nutrition
decisions in general.
Do we make choices based onshort-term feelings and I mean
feeling in the objective way,like how you feel, or the
anecdotal short-term results,short-term being as little as a
(03:21):
few weeks or month, but as longas one to two years in some
cases?
Or do we look at longer-termdata five, 10, 20 years,
lifetime data?
Do we consider the isolatedeffects?
Or do we think about howeverything connects, because our
bodies are guess what a system?
Fiber itself, in fact, touchesalmost every aspect of your
health and physique in ways thatyou might not even realize.
(03:43):
That even I'm learning more andmore about.
It's fascinating your abilityto build muscle, to lose fat, to
maintain energy, to be fuller,to prevent disease and have
long-term health yes, longevity.
All of this is influenced bywhat's happening in your gut gut
health.
Now, this is not a gut healthepisode per se, but you are
(04:04):
massively changing what's goingon down there when you eliminate
fiber, and it takes a while forthat to happen, and we don't
have a lot of research thatshows all of the negative
effects that are probably goingto be realized down the road.
We do have research on all thepositive outcomes from including
it.
So, just to make an assumption,there's probably an opposite
(04:24):
effect when you get rid ofsomething that helps.
We'll see, we'll see.
That's part of the conversationwe're going to get to today.
The carnivore folks are going totell you that the fact that
fiber is so impactful oneverything in your body is
exactly why it works toeliminate it.
They're going to say youeliminate the problematic
component, you eliminate yourproblems.
But let's talk about what fiberactually does, because most
(04:48):
people are thinking of fiberfirst and foremost as like the
scrub brush Sorry to be gross.
It cleans you out, right, keepthings moving, bms, all that
jazz but that's maybe like 20%10 to 20% of what's really
happening when you eat fiber,and this is what I used to
believe too, that it was justfor being regular.
But it's a lot, lot more thanthat when you consume fiber, it
travels through your digestivesystem unchanged until it
(05:11):
reaches your colon and thensomething remarkable, something
fascinating, happens.
The bacteria there that areliving in your gut and you have
trillions of bacteria they usethat fiber as fuel to produce
compounds.
Those compounds are short chainfatty acids.
And these aren't just wasteproducts, right?
People say, oh, they're wasteproducts of your digestion.
(05:31):
They are molecules that go intoyour bloodstream, they travel
throughout your body and theyhave an impact on your
inflammation, on your immunefunction, even on how your
muscle tissue responds toprotein responds to protein.
Yeah, fiber intake canpotentially affect your muscle
building and I've worked with alot of lifters who have strength
trained for many years.
A lot of them went on carnivorebecause they couldn't quite
(05:52):
figure out how to control theirbody fat, their belly fat, all
that stuff.
And we gradually reintroducedplants and a more diverse diet
and their gains started to takeoff like they hadn't in a long
time.
Part of it was carbohydrates,for sure.
Part of it was fiber, and itall worked just fine.
In fact, they felt better, theyhad better outcomes.
But I don't want to anecdotallysay well, just because you feel
(06:15):
better in the moment, thatmeans it works.
That is not what I want to say,because that's exactly the
claim carnivore folks make, andit's misleading, because
short-term results may belielong-term results.
There's more, though, beyondthis right Soluble fiber.
That's the one that createslike a gel in your substance.
It's like a gel-like substancein your stomach.
That's what slows down theabsorption of nutrients, and so
(06:37):
that is what's really awesomefor blood sugar control.
People talk about eatingbalanced meals, managing your
blood sugar.
It does that, but not only that.
It dramatically increases yoursatiety signals, helping you
feel satisfied with fewercalories.
Now you might say, well,protein does that, and I have
lots of meat in my diet.
Great, I agree.
Like increasing your protein inyour diet does help
(06:58):
tremendously with satiety, butfiber also has a huge impact on
satiety, to a level where, whenyou're going after some
aggressive fat loss, for example, it could be the difference
between being able to sustainyour diet and not being able to
really stick with it for longenough.
There's also something reallyfascinating about fiber in
(07:18):
today's context.
You guys heard of GLP-1, thehormone targeted by the weight
loss drugs like Ozembic.
Well, guess what fiber does?
It increases the production ofGLP-1, the hormone targeted by
the weight loss drugs likeOzembic.
Well, guess what fiber does?
It increases the production ofGLP-1.
It's kind of like a small micro, natural version of what people
are paying all this money for,not to the same dosage,
absolutely it's not going tohave the same degree of impact.
Let's be nuanced about it.
(07:38):
But just by eating plants likeeating what you should be eating
a diverse diet you're going toactually improve your production
of GLP-1.
By the way, you know what elsecan improve.
It Is strength training.
This is not about strengthtraining, but I always have to
slip that in.
Another thing is related tohormones.
We've seen that fibers link tohigher testosterone levels in
(07:59):
men, better hormone balance inwomen and the cascading effect
of all of that, like affectingyour sleep quality and your mood
and your cognitive function.
It all occurs through the gutbrain axis.
You know some people call thegut the second brain.
That is what we are talkingabout.
That's why I said initiallyfibers interwoven in almost
(08:19):
everything that's going on.
So when someone says is justabout pooping, they're missing
like 80%, 90% of what fiberactually does, and to kind of
frame that, then what does it do?
We actually want to talk aboutwhat happens when you get rid of
it when you go, say, fullcarnivore and you eliminate
fiber completely.
(08:40):
And this is where we have to becareful, because the effects
build on each other over timeand they're not all obvious at
first.
And, to be fair, we don't havea lot of long-term studies about
the negative effects, of thepotential negative effects of
these diets long-term.
We just haven't studied themlong enough, like we've studied
other diets, like, for example,the Mediterranean diet, which is
(09:01):
chock full of fiber.
And guess what?
People have incrediblelong-term longevity outcomes on
that diet.
They're high in carbs too, bythe way.
So there's this honeymoonperiod.
We have to address this becausethis is where, like, for example
, the YouTube hater commentsevery time I talk about how
great carbs are and they say, no, I went carnivore and
everything got solved and youdon't need fiber.
Well, many people initially dofeel better when they eliminate
(09:24):
fiber, especially if they haddigestive issues.
It's almost like a confirmationbias the bloating stops, the
gas goes away and they're likeyeah, see, fiber plants, those
were the problem.
But what's really happening isthat you're eliminating the
immediate symptoms, but you'renot addressing the underlying
cause.
How do I know this?
Well, I know this because I'veworked with so many clients to
(09:45):
reintroduce fiber-containingfoods and carbs without the
issues recurring, and I've saidthis on a previous episode you
cannot use an anecdote to provea claim, but you can use an
anecdote to disprove a claim,and what I would like to
disprove here by saying I'veseen many people who went
(10:05):
carnivore and eliminated theirsymptoms and then reintroduced
plants and carbs in the rightway and the symptoms did not
come back.
Well, right, there disproves theclaim that it was carnivore and
carnivore alone that thatsolved the underlying root cause
.
No, the root cause in theircase was certain foods didn't
(10:26):
work for them, period, and wejust eliminated those foods and
reintroduced the rest.
That's all it is.
And I hope for anybodylistening who's doing carnivore
and, like you, know what Ireally miss my sandwiches, or I
miss my fruit, right, or I missmy rice or my oats or anything.
Man, I just had a client heknows who he's talking about
(10:47):
he's going to laugh because I'vementioned him a few times who
just started eating oats andhe's like man, where has this
been my whole life?
It's amazing.
Anyway, we've got to not makeuniversal claims that, okay, I
went on carnivore, cut outplants and fiber, therefore, and
felt better.
Therefore, it's because of allplants and fiber.
That is a false correlation, orit's a correlation, but it's
not cause and effect, it's notcausality.
So let's talk about your gutbacteria.
(11:08):
What happens here then, whenyou don't have the fiber in
there?
Well, they start starvingwithout their fiber fuel and the
beneficial species that produce, for example, anti-inflammatory
compounds start to die off.
Really good species of bacteriawe want in our gut the kind of
things that they put intoprobiotics and you know that you
supplement with those are dyingoff because you're not feeding
(11:30):
them and they get replaced bybacteria that do thrive in low
fiber environments.
And we've identified many ofthese species of bacteria and
found that those tend to be moreinflammatory and less
beneficial.
But again, it takes quite awhile for this effect to
accumulate.
We're talking not weeks ormonths, but potentially years
(11:51):
and as your microbiome shifts,certain things are going to
start to weaken or break down.
You know you've heard of leakygut.
I still think the evidence isout on that being fully the way
it's described.
I think it's described in acolloquial way where, like,
inflammatory compounds leak intoyour bloodstream and then you
have an immune response.
But there is a connectednessbetween your gut and your
(12:12):
bloodstream.
That is real.
And when you don't havebeneficial bacteria and all you
have are these I'll call themharmful or less beneficial
bacteria then it makes sensethat this is going to accumulate
over time in terms of theresponse on your body.
So long-term is where what wehave to look at.
Studies that have beenfollowing people on very low
(12:34):
fiber diets do show increasedrates of cardiovascular disease,
certain cancers, metabolicdysfunction, over time.
We are talking about 15% to 30%increases in disease risk,
based on large populationstudies.
And what concerns me is that thecarnivore success stories or
(12:54):
anecdotes those are allshort-term.
The people that comment on myYouTube videos and say you're
full of it, I did carnivore, Ifeel great, and they've been on
carnivore for two months ormaybe six months or maybe a year
, but it's nowhere near longenough to tell what's going on.
It doesn't mean it's not afantastic elimination diet I
don't discount that that's thecase to eliminate something
that's causing you issues andthen reintroduce, one at a time,
(13:16):
things that don't.
We just don't have good data onwhat happens to people who
eliminate all plants for decades.
And if you want to participatein a massive uncontrolled
experiment and roll the dice on.
Eh, maybe it won't be so badfor me, even though I know a
diverse diet that includes fiberis great for me.
You go right ahead and do that.
(13:37):
I'm just giving you the warningbells with this episode that
there are long-term consequencespotentially to those actions,
Um, let alone the diet just notbeing sustainable or enjoyable.
I mean, if you can only eatthree foods, like a little kid,
and not eat your fruits andvegetables and I'm sorry to be
snarky, cause that's honestlywhat it amounts to Um, and be
(13:58):
happy that way that I'd like tomeet you, because the vast
majority of people I've met whoare in carnivore will say, yeah,
they miss their ice cream orthey miss their pizza or they
miss, you know something, somewhole foods like fruit or
oatmeal or something like that.
Again, I'm throwing outanecdotes too, so maybe I'm
falling prey to the same problemthat other people have, but
(14:19):
again, to me, the anecdote isdisproving the universal claim
that carnivore is the bee'sknees by saying, no, you know
what?
There's plenty of people thatthrive on a plant-based or not
plant-based, but a diverse diet.
Not only that, we have goodevidence, like the Mediterranean
diet, for example I think Ialready mentioned that that show
phenomenal long-term outcomesfrom having a diverse diet,
(14:39):
which makes a lot of sense, andI understand the appeal to
carnivore approach.
It has some level of eleganceand simplicity, right.
It's attractive that you justeat these foods, and there are a
lot of foods that many of uslove, like animal products.
Yeah, who doesn't love that,except vegans and vegetarians?
And many people, yes, do reportinitial improvements, right.
But what I want to do now isanalyze, or examine the
(15:02):
arguments against fiber.
The first claim is that fiberisn't essential.
It isn't essential, meaning youdon't have to consume it to
survive, and there's no RDA.
Yeah, that's technically true,that's technically true.
You know what else?
Carbs technically aren'tessential, and yet we know there
are massive benefits of carbs.
And so just because they're notessential or there's not an RDA
(15:23):
for it, doesn't mean that it isnot extremely beneficial and
almost necessary to have areally solid approach to your
nutrition and your health.
The second claim is that fibercauses digestive problems.
Well, sometimes it does,especially if you increase it
too quickly or if you haveunderlying gut issues, or if you
find certain foods that happento have fiber inflammatory.
(15:46):
Right, you may have IBS, youmay have some other bowel
condition and then, absolutely,you're gonna be more sensitive
to certain types of fiber notnecessarily all fiber, though.
I know plenty of folks with IBSwho they just have to be aware
of what fiber works for them andso I think the solution here
again isn't just eliminateeverything and move on with your
(16:06):
life.
It's maybe eliminate andreintroduce or identify what's
causing you problems.
That's the second claim.
You can't just say all fibercauses digestive problems.
Claim number three is that youcan get everything you need from
animals.
This is maybe one of the worstclaims of all of these, and I
think this ignores just somevery obvious nutritional gaps,
and I don't know how you getaround these except potentially
(16:29):
with lots and lots ofsupplementation.
But then your argument kind offalls flat, because then you're
saying that you need thosethings.
You're just going to get themfrom a different source.
You know where's your vitamin C, your folate, your magnesium,
the thousands of beneficialplant compounds that protect
against cellular damage.
You know that aren'tnecessarily listed on the
nutrition label, right?
Yeah, you're not going todevelop scurvy, but we're not
(16:51):
optimizing for not dying ofdeficiency diseases.
We're optimizing for peakperformance and longevity, right
, the word thrive always comesto mind in this context.
So that's the third claim, that, yeah, you can get everything
from animal products.
Not true at all.
There are so many beneficialthings in plants that you're
probably gonna be sorry youdon't have long-term, especially
for the gut health.
(17:12):
The fourth claim is that humansevolved eating mostly meat.
These ancestral arguments youknow, I used to fall for them
when I was back in my paleo daysand people would cherry pick
the anthropological evidence.
It doesn't support it.
Our ancestors were opportunists.
They ate whatever was available, and that includes significant
amounts of plant matter in mostenvironments, just like there's
(17:32):
no plant-only environments.
I did that episode on the BlueZone hoax and how just about
every society on the planet eatsa diverse diet based on what's
available to them.
Some may eat a lot of honey,some may eat a lot of goat's
milk.
It really depends.
And what we evolved eatingisn't necessarily optimal for
modern life and modern goals.
Or else you know what?
(17:53):
You probably wouldn't be eatingnearly the amount of protein
you need.
Let's just be honest.
If you just naturally ate, youprobably wouldn't have enough
protein.
And of course, I know what thecarnivore guys are saying.
They're like see, that's whyyou need carnivore.
No, that's a false argumentthat we're making segment uh
segment.
The next segment that I have inmy notes is to talk about the uh
what the research shows forstudies with people eating fiber
(18:18):
.
So if you look at largelong-term studies involving
millions of people, there is apattern and that is that higher
fiber intake is consistentlyassociated with lower rates of
chronic disease, with betterweight management, with longer
lifespan.
And if all the claims fall ontheir face, why wouldn't you
just allow yourself to eat fiberwhich gives you more options
(18:39):
for food?
Like to me, that is thesimplest argument.
It's like now you've um re,you've given your permission to
actually enjoy many, many morefoods in your diet.
If you truly and absolutely abore, you hate all forms of
carbs and plants or anythingwith fiber.
You just absolutely hate themall and you're not willing to
include them for any reason,even though it could be
(18:59):
beneficial to get over yourpickiness and train yourself to
like them which you can do, bythe way then I don't know what
to say.
I don't know what to say thatdoesn't seem to strike me as the
vast, vast majority of people.
I think the vast majority ofpeople have normal lives where
they go to parties, they travel,they go places where the food
isn't in their control and theyjust want to enjoy themselves,
(19:22):
not in a hedonistic way, but ina flexible way, what we talk
about here all the time.
If we want to talk aboutspecific studies, there's a 2019
meta-analysis in the Lancet.
All right, a meta-analysis is astudy of studies and it found
that people consuming the mostfiber I mentioned this, I
alluded to this earlier had a 15to 30% lower risk of death from
(19:43):
all causes it's called allcause mortality compared to
those eating the least fiber.
That is a massive effect sizethat shows up across different
populations and different studydesigns.
You hear what I just saidPeople consuming the most fiber
had way lower risk of death thanpeople who consumed the least
fiber.
And what's most important isthat the amount isn't that much.
(20:05):
It doesn't mean you need to eat50 grams of fiber daily.
It means that most people aregoing to benefit from adequate
fiber intake.
What is adequate?
Well, because there's no RDA,as the carnivore people will
tell you.
We've seen from, we've had toextract this from research
comparing these different levels, and it suggests that it's
around 25 to 40 grams, and I'veused a formula before of 14
(20:28):
grams for every thousandcalories you eat.
And now I tend to simplify.
I say look, if you're a woman,go for 25.
If you're a man, go for 35.
You'll be golden.
If you're higher than that,great, no big deal.
There is such a thing aspotentially too high digestively
or hunger-wise.
You know, you might not even beable to eat enough things like
that, but for the vast majorityof people their fiber is
probably too low.
(20:50):
So what's really the point ofthis whole thing?
The point here is not to chooseextremes of anything, even how
much fiber you eat.
It's to optimize it for you.
Optimize.
Look at your situation.
If you're dealing withdigestive issues, you can work
with a practitioner.
You can work with a medicalprofessional, functional
medicine folks there's some goodones out there that work on
this Nutrition coaches of courseI'm going to plug my own work
(21:12):
as well and you can address theroot causes.
And part of that might involvereducing or eliminating fiber
temporarily, absolutely, as inelimination diet, because you
may not know what you have andyou need to get down to the root
cause.
But I will tell you what theroot cause is.
Not gonna be all fiber, justeliminate fiber or eliminate
plants.
The goal should be toeventually include beneficial
plant foods as your gut healthimproves and why not?
(21:35):
That's great, that's reallyempowering, that's freeing,
that's flexible.
And when you do so, you'regoing to focus on fiber variety,
because different types offiber feed different bacterial
species to the level of it couldbe beneficial to eat different
types of apples, different typesof oranges or whatever fruits
you like, because of all thedifferent compounds in the
different species or breeds, orwhatever the word is for those,
(21:57):
because they all feed differentspecies of bacteria.
You want soluble and insolublefibers from different plant
families and guess what?
You monitor how you feel andyou adjust it gradually.
You don't do it all at once,you do one at a time.
You could do carnivore for, say, a month or two as an
elimination diet.
It's a great elimination diet.
And then add in something youthink is very easy on your
(22:17):
stomach, right, a fruit, forexample, that has fiber, maybe
it's oats, something and give ita week, give it two weeks, give
it a month, give it as long asyou need to evaluate.
Hey, you know what?
Actually, I can eat this foodjust fine, no issues whatsoever.
Now, if you spend five yearsand you, one at a time,
(22:38):
introduce every source of fiberand every single one causes you
problems.
I'll eat my shorts that allfiber is an issue for you, but
we can never make the claim thatall fiber is an issue for most
people.
And then, as far as wanting toinclude fiber, leaning into the
benefits you get from it can bevery helpful as a driver to do
this.
The satiety effects make fatloss easier, the metabolic
(22:59):
benefits support muscle building, recovery all of it.
I'm going to give you one morething to think about with fiber
that I learned from some of theguests that I've had on and some
of the latest researchhappening, and that is the
compounds that are produced whenyour gut bacteria ferment fiber
.
Right, because, remember, it'sgreat to eat fermented foods,
but you also ferment fiberyourself in your body.
The body's amazing, it reallyis.
(23:21):
It can enhance get this okaythe compounds produced when that
happens can enhance muscleprotein synthesis, mps.
That's the rate at which webuild muscle, because when the
good bacteria, the beneficialbacteria, break down fiber, they
produce something calledbutyrate, and the butyrate goes
in your bloodstream and has beenshown to improve insulin
sensitivity, specifically inmuscle tissue.
(23:43):
And that means fiber isn't justsupporting digestive health.
It's literally helping yourmuscles use protein more
effectively.
What other great reason isthere than that?
For those of us who are liftingand trying to build muscle,
it's not the only reason, butit's a cool one.
There's also some emergingresearch showing that certain
fiber types can increase theabsorption of amino acids, right
(24:04):
Again broken down from protein,and that improves the muscle
building response to yourtraining.
So the carnivore community'sargument that you can optimize
muscle growth with meat alone, Ithink ignores some of these
pathways right that are tied tothe gut, which a lot of you
there might be even surprised inthis episode that that is the
case.
(24:24):
I used to kind of ignore guthealth, say, okay, that's a side
thing over there.
More people I talk to, the moreI look at the literature and
the more I work with clients, Irealized that the pathways
involved in gut health andhaving the right gut bacteria in
your body, coming from diversefiber consumption, produce
compounds that are beneficial inmany, many, many ways.
And you're making thisanthropological or ancestral
(24:46):
argument.
Maybe we should turn thataround and say you know what?
We probably thrive as humansbecause we can handle a variety
of foods and maybe we should beeating a variety of foods for
that very reason.
Not necessarily these specificfoods, but just diversity in
general.
And that's why I like lookingat the complete picture at the
system, rather than gettingcaught up in dietary dogma.
(25:09):
Because that is what it isthese diets.
They are dogma.
They are rigid, restrictiveforms of thinking that allow for
no disproof of their hypothesiswhatsoever, even though the
counter arguments and evidenceis all around them.
So fiber is not just stayingregular, it's not just
preventing disease, even thoughthose are great things Trust me,
(25:31):
I know when I don't have enoughfiber.
I'm not gonna go into detailsbut it's also a performance
enhancer.
It's like nature's naturalperformance enhancing drug right
.
It's a GLP-1 producer.
It's great for your physiquegoals and I think there's a lot
of mechanisms we're onlybeginning to understand because
gut health is still in its nadir, to use a fun word.
Or is nadir the right?
(25:52):
I think that's the beginning.
Now you got me thinking.
Does nadir mean the peak?
I meant to say fiber is in itsnascent period of research?
Anyway, I'm being a totalgrammar snob right now, forgive
me.
The carnivore versus fiberdebate.
I don't even know why there's adebate, but I think we need
more evidence-based thinking andnot ideological extremes, to
(26:14):
the point where I would say thatan ideological extreme is, by
definition, not evidence-based.
It just has to be, becausenothing is that black and white.
Everything's individualized atthe end anyway, right?
So you can't make those typesof claims.
Eliminating fiber might provideshort-term relief, especially if
you have digestive issues.
But if I'm going to take ananalogy, we've had some water
(26:36):
issues in our house issues.
But if I'm going to take ananalogy, we've had some water
issues in our house, right, if Ihave a problem in the toilet or
speaking of pun intended fiberepisode, or problem with the
sink or whatever, if I shut thewater off to the house, it's
going to eliminate that issue,isn't it?
But it's not fixing the rootcause.
I mean, that's just a simpleanalogy that comes to mind.
So I don't think I have toreiterate the details.
(26:57):
But immune system, hormones,muscle building, disease risk,
longevity it's all improved byhaving higher fiber in your diet
and you don't have to choose aside.
Just look at the completepicture and give yourself
flexibility and figure out whatworks for you.
That's it.
Just don't be extreme, don'trestrict unnecessarily.
I'm trying to give you somepower back here.
That's where I had to go.
That's a journey I had to gothrough.
(27:18):
I used to do paleo, I used to doketo and all that, and it was
always like cut, cut, cut.
What can't, can't, can't I eat?
You don't have to do that right.
Your gut bacteria have beenwaiting millions of years for
you to feed them properly.
They're way older than us.
Don't starve them.
(27:42):
Don't starve those littlebuggers.
They need to eat.
All right, all right, if youwant a nutrition approach for
you, just the simple steps thatgoes along with this to create a
flexible approach that stillmeets your goals.
Download my free guide Nutrition101 Guide Link in the show
notes.
Totally sustainable,science-based approach.
It's personalizable.
It doesn't tell you here's ameal plan, here's what you have
to eat.
No, it says let's figure thisout together for you.
Let's use the right tools tofigure it out.
Go to witsandweightscom slashfree to get your free copy of
the Nutrition 101 Guide.
Until next time, keep usingyour wits, lifting those weights
(28:08):
, and remember, when it comes tonutrition, the best approach is
usually the one supported bythe most evidence, not the
loudest voices or dogmatic camps.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights podcast
.
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