Comment on If you eat nothing but smoothies, do you still poop?

• zephr_c@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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  • Pherenike@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    And constipation!

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  • dragonfucker@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Thank you!

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• jol@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Fiber mostly feeds the bacteria in your digestive system and they play an important role in digestion, and general well being.

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• captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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• VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    And they are an energy source for the good microbes there too.

    Gotta get those microbial micronutrients.

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  • dragonfucker@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Why are volume and muscle movement needed?

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    • weew@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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    • VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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      • dragonfucker@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        That’s not actually an answer. “It’s needed because it’s optimal”, that doesn’t explain any science. Drag wants to know the science.

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