More important than totaling daily fiber grams, dieters should question the origin of the fiber in their food before they ingest it. They might not like what they discover.
Health Food Might Not Be So Healthy After All
Nature provides dietary fiber in the cell walls of plants and in foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Fiber enhances and extends the feeling of fullness, which helps dieters eat less often and consume fewer calories with their meals. Fiber improves digestive health, cardiovascular health, helps control blood sugar and reduces the risk of diabetes, according to Mayo Clinic. However, not all fibers contained in food come from nature’s bounty. People who use “Nutrition Facts” labels as their only guide to fiber content might not be aware that all types of fiber are lumped together under the heading “Dietary Fiber”. This category includes dietary fibers that occur naturally in foods, functional fibers, which, after being extracted from one or several types of food, are altered and recombined to provide specific health benefits, and genetically modified, manufactured or chemically produced synthetic fibers. While functional and synthetic fibers added to foods are alleged to provide health benefits, they do not provide the nutritional benefits of fiber-rich natural, unaltered foods. Dietitians recommend natural foods as the best source to meet daily nutritional needs.
What Nutrition Labels Do Not Tell You
Whether people’s fiber consumption is motivated by the desire to achieve weight loss or to improve health, everyone should know if the food they eat and feed to their families comes from nature, if it has been modified, or if it contains manufactured or chemically altered ingredients. For example, PGX, a dietary supplement, would be listed on a nutrition label as dietary fiber, when in fact it is a synthetic compound. In a report entitled “Dietary Fibre,” the author reminds us that “extracted and synthetic compounds resembling fiber” are not naturally occurring substances.
New Fiber Supplement
Nutrition and Diabetes reported the results of a short study involving a new fiber supplement developed for human consumption, PolyGlycopleX (PGX). In the double-blind study, overweight participants consumed a low-calorie diet supplemented with a placebo or PGX, a highly viscous fiber that increased satiety, decreased appetite and delayed hunger. The apparently successful outcome indicates a need for long-term studies to determine if PGX can be a useful tool against obesity and related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
What Lies Ahead
The long-term effects of synthetic food additives cannot be determined. The human organism is capable of metabolizing natural chemicals – vitamins, minerals and other nutrients – found in foods provided by nature. No one can foresee the effect on future generations following long-term consumption of modified foods containing manufactured chemicals or a mixture of genes from a variety of plant and animal sources. People witness daily television commercials containing disclaimers warning of a minimal number of allergic and adverse reactions, kidney, liver and other organ damage, and even a small number of deaths related to specific pharmaceuticals. In addition to genetically altered foods, most medications contain genetically modified organisms. Are any of the potential side effects acceptable risks for the possible benefits provided by these products?
Law Suits
Lawsuits abound against false advertising of “all natural” ingredients in food. The World Health Organization defines genetically modified organisms as “foods derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g., through the introduction of a gene from a different organism.” A lawsuit filed September 27, 2011, alleges a juice product, which contains synthetic fibers, is falsely advertised and labeled as all natural and non-GMO. The WHO definition of GMO’s should be the legal standard for food advertising and labeling.
Sources
Mayo Clinic Staff, “Nutrition and Healthy Eating”
Lynda Murray, MA, RD, LD, CSSD, “Not All Carbohydrates Are Evil, Not All Fibers Are Good”
Sidney Fry, MS, RD, “The Skinny on Added Fiber”
V. Kacinik et al, “Effect of PGX, a Novel Functional Fibre Supplement, on Subjective Ratings of Appetite in Overweight and Obese Women Consuming a 3-Day Structured, Low-Calorie Diet,” Nutrition and Diabetes
Effie Schultz, “Dietary Fibre”
World Health Organization, “Food, Genetically Modified”
Sara Sandys v. Naked Juice Company