The tricky thing about fiber is that it’s not a monolith. There are dozens of varieties. Some of them perform similar functions in the body, but others have extremely unique effects. Some rend your colonic lining to stimulate lubrication. Some turn into gelatinous slurries. But we can’t talk about fiber without understanding that the word describes a variety of compounds. As such, anyone making declarative statements about “fiber” without differentiating between the different types and their effects isn’t being accurate (except for me in that exact sentence).

This leads to a lot of confusion. People make blanket statements that might be true for some types of fibers and incorrect for others.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)