Is Fiber Causing Constipation and Sibo?! – A Total Shift in Paradigms

A study called ‘Stopping or Reducing Dietary Fiber Intake Reduces Constipation and it’s Associated Symptoms’ was done in 2012, with 16 male and 47 female patients.

The 63 patients were split into 3 groups; there was a zero fiber group, a reduced fiber group, and a regular diet group. All of the patiencts had idiopathic constipation, so 63 cases of idiopathic constipation, and what did they find?

The group with no fiber had 100% reduction in constipation, gas and bloating! Every single person in that arm of the trial had resolution of their symptoms, complete resolution!

So when they had zero fiber they had zero constipation, gas and bloating!

So this kind of gets to the idea that fiber, for some people, is definitely causing what’s termed as, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). It’s fiber that’s likely contributing to sibo in some people, and sibo can either be methane or hydrogen producing organisms. The methane producing organisms in sibo are known to be associated with constipation, because the methane is a paralytic for the gut. Often times hydrogen producing sibo will cause diarrhea, so this perhaps is the root of IBS diarrhea versus IBS constipation.

The idea here is that in people with constipation, by completely eliminating fiber, that lead to complete resolution of their symptoms!

When people have bad constipation, I always recommend them to do a carnivorous diet, which doesn’t have any fiber, and it’s often hard for them to get their head around this. Their doctor told them that the constipation is caused by not enough fiber, but that doesn’t seem to be what we see in the literature at all!

There are plenty of other studies as well that show that fiber doesn’t improve constipation, and then this study which shows that when you remove fiber completely the constipation goes away!

So it’s just this wild, we’re just shifting paradigms here, and everything is getting turned on its head!

There’s potential harm and no benefit whatsoever in constipation, and a clear indication that it could be harming in constipation, and then we can talk about all the other stuff with fiber too, cancer and everything else as well.

We’ve been obsessed with fiber for 30-40 years, and so many people are obsessed with how big their bowel movement is, it’s like the bigger the better, we’re finding the opposite too with the carnivorous diet, the bowel movements are smaller, because your body’s using all of the nutrients actually! It’s pretty remarkable.

Source: Saladino, Paul, guest. “Part 39 – Paul Saladino, MD on Everything You Thought You Knew About Food Might Be Wrong” Peak Human, 2 May 2019.  https://peakhuman.libsyn.com/part-39-paul-saladino-md-on-everything-you-thought-you-knew-about-food-might-be-wrong