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Search - 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

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
Author: Konstantin Monastyrsky

You believe fiber is a health food. Fiber Menace tells you otherwise. Fiber has zero nutritional value. It contains no vitamins, minerals, or microelements, and it’s indigestible to boot. All of fiber’s make-believe health benefits are related to five of its prominent qualities: "water absorbency," "bulk," "roughage," "fermenta... more »tion," and "laxative" effect. All five are behind fiber’s primary goal in human nutrition: the prevention and treatment of constipation. In reality, here is what actually takes place: Water absorbency causes fiber to expand. While the whole point and purpose of chewing and digestion is to reduce food particles to the barest minimum and liquefy them for easy passage through the digestive tract, fiber does the complete opposite—it balloons four to five times its original size and weight, and congregates into large lumps. Can that be any good for you? Well, it's just as good as swallowing food without chewing. Bulk means that fiber makes stools large and heavy. How heavy? About four to five times as heavy, or as much as the amount of water it can absorb and retain. Can that be any good for you? It's just about as good as swallowing apples whole. Large objects tend to get stuck inside passageways, be it an apple inside the mouth, or bulky stools inside the colon. That’s why so many children and adults suffer from chronic constipation. Roughage means that fiber makes stools rough. Rough enough to cause diverticular and hemorrhoidal diseases, anal tears, and crimson blood streaks on passing stools. So rough, in fact, that many toddlers fed high-fiber diets refuse to move their bowels because of pain, and eventually have to be "manually disimpacted" (meaning the impacted stools must be removed by hand, under anesthesia, by a surgeon or specially-trained nurse). Excessive fermentation causes pain and suffering. Gases and acid are the byproducts of fiber’s bacterial fermentation, which causes bloating, flatulence, and abdominal pain, and are the "driving forces" behind IBS, diverticular disease, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. That’s why doctors prescribe antibiotics to wipe out bacteria. Unfortunately, once the bacteria are gone, constipation becomes even worse, and doctors recommend even more fiber. The laxative effect is particular to soluble fiber, also known as "mucilage." It’s based on the fact that once inside the intestines, soluble fiber blocks water absorption (along with essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, of course), and this causes diarrhea. Of course, consuming foods that have laxative effects can’t be good for either irritable bowel syndrome or colitis, because diarrhea is one of its main outcomes. If you still doubt that dietary fiber is a menace, just note the following description of the side effects associated with fiber laxatives, which are, of course, 100% pure, unadulterated fiber: "Bloating, gas, and a feeling of fullness may occur. If these effects continue or become bothersome, inform your doctor. Notify your doctor if you experience: stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, rectal bleeding, unrelieved constipation." These side effects are easily explainable and apparent: The "feeling of fullness" is caused by fiber expanding inside the stomach. That’s why fiber is promoted as an appetite suppressant. Unfortunately, the actual effect is exactly the opposite: the expanded fiber stretches out the stomach, delays digestion, and causes even more appetite. The obesity epidemic is directly connected to these properties of fiber. The "bloating" happens from the inability of the intestines to absorb gas, because soluble fiber and acids from fermentation make the mucosal membrane inflamed and impregnable. The "stomach cramps" stem the from unrelenting intestinal peristalsis required to dislodge and move along sticky, glutinous lumps of fiber, pressure from gas, and pressure on surrounding organs from the expanded intestines. The "nausea" and "vomiting" are the symptoms of acute gastritis and enteritis—respectively, the inflammation of the stomach’s and intestinal mucosal membranes, which cause the violent rejection of any food, not just fiber. The inflammation itself is caused by fiber’s adverse impact on digestive organs. Among toddlers, a gastric or intestinal obstruction is the more likely cause. The "rectal bleeding" is caused either by the ulceration of the large intestine from persistent diarrhea (the laxative effect) or from bulky, rough stools tearing apart the delicate tissues of the anal canal. Finally, the "unrelieved constipation" occurs when fiber-laden stools expand inside the large intestine to a size that exceeds the diameter of the anal canal, and can't exit. When that happens, anything is possible, including appendicitis, diverticular disease, irreversible stretching of the colon (megacolon), colon perforation, vaginal prolapse, stools migrating back into the small intestine, and on, and on, and on. These side effects wouldn’t be such a big deal until you realize that the fiber in fruits, vegetables, and cereals isn’t any different from the fiber in laxatives, except (a) it isn’t as obvious, (b) it isn’t carefully dosed by the teaspoon, but consumed with abandon, and (c) it isn’t accompanied by strong warnings on the label. But it’s still exactly the same fiber—a complex carbohydrate comprised of thousands of molecules of glucose bound together into strong "fibers" that can’t get digested once inside the body, hence the definition: "indigestible fiber." The more fiber you consume, the more severe the impact, and the older you are, the more obvious and menacing fiber’s effect becomes. (It’s equally bad for toddlers whose digestive organs are even more vulnerable than adults’ because of their tiny size.) That’s why this book is called Fiber Menace. At the end of the day, the damage from fiber adds up to unfortunate medical statistics: indigestion, heartburn (GERD), gastritis, ulcers, hernias, gallstones, constipation, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticular disease, precancerous polyps, chronic diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. Ironically, fiber is recommended to treat and prevent all of these disorders with a predictable outcome: they get worse, and some transform into deadly cancers. Order your copy of Fiber Menace now. By the time you’ll hear from your doctor that fiber is a menace, it may be too late to prevent and reverse the damage.

ISBN-13: 9780970679642
ISBN-10: 0970679645
Publication Date: 10/15/2005
Pages: 296
Rating:

Currently 5/5 Stars.

5 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: Ageless Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 2
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