WHAT IS SO MENACING ABOUT FIBER?

Fiber Menace: The Truth About the Leading Role of Fiber in Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Colon Cancer.

1st edition; Softcover: 296 pages; Language: English;
ISBN: 0-9706796-4-5

Sex or No Sex,
We've Been Had — Big Time!

You might be surprised to find out that the original intent behind fiber consumption wasn’t the betterment of your health, but the suppression of sexuality! As this book explains, fiber has indeed succeeded at rendering a great many men and women sexually dysfunctional.

That's why just a generation ago, avoiding fiber was the quintessence of prudent nutrition. Caring parents everywhere, American and European alike, were earnestly peeling fruits (apples, peaches, pears, prunes) and skinning vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes) before giving them to children or eating them themselves.

The French and Italians still do it. And the Japanese diet is practically fiber-free. Americans, on the other hand, are urged to consume 30 to 40 grams of dietary fiber daily, regardless of their age and health.

Many heed this advice (some with a vengeance), assuming there can’t be too much of a good thing. The outcome is predictable: a pandemic of digestive disorders, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and obesity. These problems are worse in the United States than in any other Western country.

All this seems hard to believe until you actually begin examining the role of fiber in human nutrition, Thus, the point of Fiber Menace isn't telling you what to eat, but what not to eat and why. Here is a chapter-by-chapter summary of what's under the cover:

Part I. Truth, More Truth, and Diet Failure

Chapter 1, Fiber Carnage describes the role fiber plays in both nutrition and disease, in layman’s terms. It concludes that fiber is an addictive substance, meaning that after you begin consuming fiber specifically for its “health benefits,” you’ll need more and more fiber with every passing year to get, literally, the same “kick in the ass.” If you abuse any organ too long and too hard, it eventually breaks down. The list of fiber-related fault lines is so long, the chapter takes over thirty pages just to describe the major ones. [read]

Chapter 2, Water Damage explains why the widespread popularity of fiber brought with it another menace: increased consumption of water. Not because more water is actually needed, but because the advice to “eat more fiber” invariably accompanies the advice to “drink more water.” Water is every bit as addictive as fiber, but for a different reason—the more you drink, the more you urinate, the more you urinate, the more water you need to replace it. Unfortunately, you don’t urinate just water. Urine washes out minerals that are crucial for health, especially potassium. Potassium deficiency happens to be one of the primary causes of costiveness (hard stools) and constipation (irregular stools). When that situation arises, you’ll be advised to increase fiber and water consumption. Imagine what happens next.

Chapter 3, Atkins Goes to South Beach illustrates the connections between fiber and obesity, and fiber and diet failure—two of the most pressing public health problems of our generation. The Public health authorities’ incessant urging that we consume more natural fiber in the form of bread, pasta, cereals, fruits, and vegetables is precipitating an obesity epidemic, because fiber-rich foods contain ten to twenty times as much carbohydrate as they do fiber (5% to 10%). Unfortunately, by the time you’re ready to jump on the low-carb bandwagon, dropping carbs cold turkey doesn’t work, because your colon is already dependent on fiber to move your bowels. If you throw the shortcomings of the Atkins and South Beach diets into this mix, you end up with diet failure. If you didn’t get major anorectal damage from the “hard landing,” consider yourself lucky. For anyone who aspires to lose weight and preserve health, this chapter alone makes reading this book worthwhile. [Available here, PDF]

Part II. All the Proof You Need

Chapter 4, Disbacteriosis. At one point or another, anyone may experience costiveness (large, hard stools, need to strain) or constipation (irregular stools regardless of size, shape, and volume). There are many reasons behind these conditions (also known as dysbiosis), ranging from bad parenting to bad poisoning, from too much fiber to too little fat, and everything in between. Whenever external factors compromise bowel movements, the normal bacteria inside the large intestine are the first to suffer. Because these bacteria make up the bulk of normal stools (up to 75%), once they’re gone, stools harden up because the bacteria are no longer there to retain water, soften the stools, and provide “bulk.” This chapter describes the sorry travails of these hard-working little bugs, deciphers the events that precede their demise, and explains their connection to health, longevity, and disease.

Chapter 5, Constipation. After the bacteria are gone, fiber enters the picture to replace their function. For a while, it may even work as advertised. Fiber makes stools voluminous and not as hard, and the problems appear to be gone. Unfortunately, this is merely the calm before a calamity: “normality” comes not from restoring the body’s natural clockwork, but from replacing it with an outside bulking agent; essentially, a laxative. For a while, the problems are hidden because you don’t yet feel them. This chapter describes the transition through the three phases of fiber-dependence that accompanies the functional (reversible), latent (hidden), and organic (irreversible, only manageable) stages of constipation.

Chapter 6, Hemorrhoidal Disease. Here comes the reckoning: large stools [caused by fiber] and the straining needed to expel them wear out and damage the small, taut and extremely delicate anal canal. Enlarged hemorrhoids are the first signs of trouble. As hemorrhoids get larger, the anal canal opening gets smaller, and constipation gets worse. When that happens, most people add more fiber to their diets. Naturally, the stools get even larger, the anal canal opening even smaller, and the constipation more severe than ever. This chapter describes the role of fiber in the pathogenesis and evolution of this disorder, which afflicts up to half of all adult Americans by the age of 50. That’s close to the number of people who become overweight on high-carb, high-fiber diets. What goes around, comes around.

Chapter 7, Diverticular Disease.  As we get older, the muscles, bones, eyes, and hearing all grow weaker. The large intestine is no exception. By the age of 60 up to half of all Americans are affected by diverticular disease, which is an irreversible bulging of the large intestine. There is only one force that can make the intestinal walls bulge out: large stools. There is only one food component that causes large stools: dietary fiber. This chapter explains why this happens, what you can do to prevent it, or how to make the condition benign if you already have it. Trust me, you don’t want to experience the complications.

Chapter 8, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The combined impact of disbacteriosis, a fiber-rich diet, laxatives, constipation, and hemorrhoids (not necessarily all of them or in that order), brings along yet another torment—irritable bowel syndrome. It is a functional condition, which means that it’s completely reversible. The problem is that everyone tries to reverse it with more fiber and more drugs, rather than with less fiber and bacterial supplements. This chapter explains why up to 60 million Americans “can’t get no relief,” and how so many of them set themselves up for what’s addressed in Chapter 9.

Chapter 9, Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease. These two diseases are considered irreversible, points of no return. Sure they are, as long as they’re treated with even more fiber, even more antibiotics, even more immunodepressants, even more antispasmodics, and even more laxatives. After you finish reading this chapter, you, too, will be scratching your head in disbelief. If, God forbid, you suffer from one of these conditions, you’ll know what to do to turn back the tide. If you do nothing, ulcerative colitis increases the chances of getting colorectal cancer by “32 times the normal rate” according to the National Institutes of Health. That’s, believe it or not, 3,200%

Chapter 10, Colon Cancer. Think about it: according to this book, dietary fiber is the primary cause of ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis increases the chances of getting colon cancer a great many times over. To prevent colon cancer, you’re being told to consume more fiber. Well, hope springs eternal, as they say. This chapter reviews recent research data that tells the unwelcome truth: fiber does little or nothing to prevent colon cancer, and may actually contribute to colon cancer. This research doesn’t come from the bowels of the Internet, but from some of the most distinguished medical publications and establishments out there, such as The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The National Cancer Institute, The World Health Organization, and the like.

Part III. From High To Low Without a Blow

Chapter 11, Avoiding the Perils of Transition. Imagine the promise of spectacular and permanent weight loss, and then the disappointment experienced among people who failed on the Atkins or South Beach diets because of constipation, indigestion, hypoglycemia, dehydration, and other “side effects” of reduced fiber diets. This book can malign fiber all it wants, but what good will it do if fiber addiction can’t be broken without these debilitating conditions? This chapter explains the causes behind the fallout from fiber withdrawal, and describes key strategies for a crash-free transition from a high- to low-fiber lifestyle. This brings us to the final chapter.

Chapter 12, The Low-Fiber Advantage. Humans are extremely vulnerable to just about anything out of the ordinary: heat, cold, fire, smoke, darkness, slippery surfaces, and so on. The natural, innate fear of trauma and death keeps most of us away from these types of perils. Not so with health—as a rule, most people don’t value it until they no longer have it. Inversely, the value of health becomes palpable when we first begin experiencing diseases, especially those that cause pain or defy a quick fix. This chapter enumerates the key benefits of excising fiber from your diet. These benefits range from weight loss and improved digestion to recovery from diabetes, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis—disorders that defy conventional treatment because drugs can only sugarcoat their symptoms, but can do nothing to remove their causes. Fiber is the champion of harm among these conditions.

Reality check

The Stats Behind Fiber's Disaster

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't dream up the number of digestive disorders affecting Americans in my worst nightmares. Unfortunately, it's all too true. No wonder we have the costliest healthcare system in the world. Here are some facts from the back cover:

The epidemiological statistics cited on the back cover was obtained from the following sources:

1. Every tenth adult American (over 21 million*) has been diagnosed with an ulcer at least once in his or her life­time.

2. Every fifth American (up to 60 million*) suffers from irritable bowel syndrome.

3. Every second adult over age fifty (about 38 million*) is affected by hemorrhoidal disease.

4. Every second adult over age sixty (about 23 million*) suffers from diverticular disease.

5. Depending on who’s counting, over 80 million* Americans endure chronic constipation.

6. Besides impaired digestion, over 137 million* adult Americans are overweight or obese…

*To calculate population breakdown:
U.S. Census 2000; Age Groups and Sex:  2000

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Author's note:

As you can see, fiber's toll on our health is huge. On a purely statistical level, fiber causes more harm and death than tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs combined.

Not surprisingly, just as in the case of the tobacco industry, those who benefit most from peddling fiber will keep squeezing every penny of profit out of it for as long as they can weasel their way around the truth.

And why not? Baking cereals from cattle chow (bran), or making laxatives from chicken feed (psyllium) is as profitable as minting money. No, probably more profitable!

Another aspect of this tragedy is even scarier. Just as tobacco keeps a substantial slice of the medical industry gainfully employed, patching up fiber's shenanigans makes it rich. So why stop the windfall?

Fortunately, there is hope. This is an institutional problem, not a professional one. The absolute majority of honest, hard-working, and honorable doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and dietitians are as victimized by fiber-related deception as their patients.

So while I am critical of many aspects of medicine, it doesn't imply that I am critical of medical professionals wholesale. Just like you can't blame a soldier for carrying out his generals' orders, you can't blame individual doctors for abiding by established guidelines.

Once, when I was presenting a lecture on a related subject, one lady in the audience got up and said:

— Mr. Monastyrsky, what you are saying irks me, but, as a physician, I can't find a single flaw with it.”

If ever I need a doctor, I'd like to be treated by an introspective and honest doctor just like her. This excerpt from Fiber Menace represents some even more nuanced discussions of this complicated subject.

So, if you want change, please, point out this site to medical professionals in your life, or give Fiber Menace to read to your physician or pediatrician. That's how the change will come—one good doctor at a time!

Konstantin Monastyrsky