Comment on If you eat nothing but smoothies, do you still poop?
NegativeInf@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Smoothies with a proper dietary balance still have fiber. So yeah.
But even beyond that, waste products from the gut microbiome, and left over bits that the body doesn’t use. Best case scenario, you would have small, liquid poops.
Your best bet? Intravenous feeding. Not that Drag has any intention of doing this.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
If the fiber is required for a proper diet, why isn’t it absorbed by the intestines?
zephr_c@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Fiber doesn’t actually have any nutritional value. It functionally just scrubs your intestines when you eat it. If you don’t have enough fiber it can cause very weird digestive issues as strange things build up in your guts.
NegativeInf@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Well, physical scrubbing, sure. But also, specific fibers are required for a healthy gut microbiome to function and maintain a proper balance of microbes that produce other micronutrients that your body cannot make on its own as well as fending off the types of microbes that subsist of sugars and fats alone.
Pherenike@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
And constipation!
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Thank you!
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Fiber mostly feeds the bacteria in your digestive system and they play an important role in digestion, and general well being.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Because its role is to aid in the voiding process. Much as part of the role of water is to serve as a carrier of urea out of the body, fiber’s job is to provide, bulk of a sort that’s easy on your intestines for the removal of waste. We could have evolved different dietary needs, but as fiber is plentiful in what we ate in the wild we adapted around it. Similar to how cats need external sources of taurine but we don’t.
VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
The task for dietary fibers is to give volume in the colon and give the peristaltic muscles something to do.
They have limited nutritional value.
NegativeInf@lemmy.world 1 month ago
And they are an energy source for the good microbes there too.
Gotta get those microbial micronutrients.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Why are volume and muscle movement needed?
weew@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Imagine trying to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube but it’s almost empty vs almost full.
Your gut is meant to keep things moving along… If it doesn’t, it ain’t good.
VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
It’s the optimal for our digestive system, of course in some cases like in the hospital or nursing home people have trouble with getting the correct diet they then get laxatives to help.