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We can’t digest fiber. Maybe you already know this, but have you stopped to really think about it?
Fiber, the parts of plants that can’t be directly broken down by our digestive enzymes, is also essential for our health. That’s because fiber doesn’t feed us, a lot of it feeds the bacteria that reside inside of us.
Did you know fiber helps your body produce its own GLP-1?
When your gut bacteria break down soluble fibers they become short-chain fatty acids that bind to the cells lining your intestine, sending your body a signal to produce GLP-1. That’s one reason why fiber helps you feel full. And maybe why foods that are engineered to promote overeating don’t have fiber (more on that in a second).
Did you also know fiber helps reduce your risk of food-borne illness?
A happy gut that’s chowing down on fiber will maintain a specific pH. Similar to how a healthy sourdough starter is acidic enough to prevent mold and harmful bacteria from taking hold of it, a healthy gut pH is hostile to pathogens like E. Coli and Salmonella. So in addition to avoiding foods that have been actively recalled, you can also bolster your bodies defenses against unannounced recalls by making sure to get enough fiber (how much is enough? See my last newsletter).
I wasn’t taught any of this—until I signed myself up for a semester of Grain School (a very cool, totally online program that I encourage everyone to take). Previously, I had a vague sense that I needed to eat fiber and I assumed, incorrectly, that if I made an effort to eat healthy I was getting enough. But I wasn't paying especially close attention to fiber.
Here’s why you can have a generally healthy diet and still not be getting enough fiber:
Last month, I wrote about how our lack of dietary fiber is a global public health concern. And there’s a single moment in food history that set us down this path: “Pure” white wheat flour, created in the 1870s as two rival mills in Minnesota sought big profits from storing and transporting grains, was the first industrialized carb in world history. It became a global commodity and made processed grains the default from a manufacturing point of view. There’s a fantastic free documentary about this on YouTube.
What this means is that less than 150 years ago, we took a sharp turn away from how humans have been sustaining ourselves since about 10,000 years ago, when nomadic cultures around the world began shifting to an agrarian lifestyle and learned to cultivate and prepare grains and other plants to maximize nutrition and energy in order to sustain growing populations.
So, first modern industrialization erased nearly all the fiber from grains and other whole foods that are a significant portion of our diets. In even less time, home cooking and traditional food preparation has been eclipsed by ultra-processed foods (UPF), especially in high-income countries. UPF make up 58% of energy intake for children and adults in the US, 56% of home food expenditures among Australian households, and anywhere from 61% of to 79% of the middle-aged adult diet in 10 European countries.
Robert F. Kenned Jr. is making it a personal mission to define UPF and what's in them. But if you ask me, what's more to the point is what's missing. It's important not to over-index on individual nutrients in isolation, but the same health issues you get from eating UPF are also the diseases you get from not eating enough fiber. What I'm seeing over and over again is this:
A lack of fiber is the canary in the coal mine for diets that are processed to the point that they're of poor nutritional quality.
It takes years for food policies to be created, and even more time for the food system to adopt them. The fact that policymakers are splitting hairs about "regular food processing" versus "ultra-food processing" without centering major dietary deficits like fiber (which are well documented) is frustrating because in the meantime, we pay those costs directly. “Poor-quality diets are the leading cause of rising healthcare costs, yet the health care system places little to no emphasis on nutrition.”
So here's where we're at: a time of rising diet-related diseases and food-borne illnesses, surrounded by ultra-processed foods stripped of the fiber and other nutrients that make up whole foods, and it’s our responsibility to keep our microbiome balanced and healthy, or else we pay the health costs and consequences.
Which is why it's time for a gut reno. But here’s the good news:
It’s becoming less cheap to eat fast food and other poor quality meals. Home cooking gives you the most control you can have over the nutrition and quality of your food. Covid19 revealed the deep vulnerability of a global commodity food system, and has led many people to invest in regional food systems that give us better access to higher-quality whole foods. Plus, we now have the knowledge of traditional ways of preparing food in our pockets. The thing that's missing, from my POV, is a bridge. If you're too busy to cook from scratch, how are you going to find time to learn? You may be able to buy a bag of whole wheat flour, but where exactly do you start? And what if you don't like the food you made with it? What went wrong, and where do you go from there?
This is the crux of my newsletter, my business Quail Street, and my reason for facing embarrassment head-on to start sharing more of my work (and my face) online. I want to create that bridge, first with recipes that give the foods you already eat a fiber makeover, and soon, baking mixes that make it easy and foolproof to start discovering all that whole grains have to offer.
I hope you'll tune in as I share all of this on social media (@amyconnors and @quailstreetco on Instagram, @wholegrainamy on TikTok and Youtube). And if you try making even one of my recipes, I hope you'll let me know how your own gut reno goes.
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