Understood that fiber is important, and the research behind soluble, insoluble fiber, and resistant starch. How did the guidelines arrive at 30-35g of fiber a day for men?
Any help is appreciated.
>The current DRI value is an adequate intake level and is based on the
decreased risk of coronary heart disease with dietary fiber consumption (2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065764/
It’s important to know this is a recommendation, Ive delt with people who absolutely cannot eat this much fibre without spending the day in a toilet. Averages work for a lot of people, but there are often exceptions
I have read many studies, some totally contradicting each others findings yet the consensus lands somewhere, and this is where it landed.
Personally I eat less than 10g of fiber a day, and often it’s 0 a day and I am doing much better than when I was consuming more, up to 50g at the top. My blood levels are golden, my stool is perfectly fine, some irregular now and then but that’s my whole life. This may be because I am on a low carb lifestyle, and to digest some carbohydrates you need more fiber as it is your gut micro biome that digests some of it, and the microbes need fiber to live.
So to even pretend that there is one recommend dose of it daily is childishly over simplistic and is probably often wrong. It might be true for the statistically average human but almost no one is statistically average. I believe the recommendations to be at a juvenile state, because it isn’t referencing individuals and I think only individuals hear/read the recommendations.
I do not know how the need was defined first - probably by going after a health (poop?) problem that could be solved by increasing fibre intake. There are many studies looking at fibre intake and correlation effects. A quite new one from 2021 checked (again) on fibre intake of 10, 20 and 30 g per day and confirmed better results with higher fibre intake - stating also that results can be highly individual.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312822001664
None of the guidelines are based in science, only philosophy. For instance “5 a day” (or whatever your guidelines say for fruits/vegetables), this is completely made up. Zero scientific evidence for it.
It’s the same with fiber.
Personally, I eat a very low fiber diet.