Peter Attia

And that's where the bulk of nutritional absorption takes place.

But of course, this is what separates fiber from many of the other things we consume, which is the enzymes can't break down fiber.

So they actually make their way all the way to the large intestine.

Now, these compounds that make their way to the large intestine are virtually always carbohydrate-based.

And that's why if you look at a nutrition label, you'll usually see fiber as kind of a subset of carbohydrates.

But it usually doesn't count towards the caloric content because you're not really using them for energy.

The common thread across fiber types is that we can't digest them.

But that's really where the similarities end and where the chemical composition of fibers vary widely.

This is where you start to get into...

at least for me, kind of a nomenclature and a set of explanations that actually is quite complicated and probably worth getting into a bit more.

Yeah, no, there are differences.

Not all fibers are created equal, and this is where, unfortunately, we do need to get into a little bit of semantics to be able to really make progress in this topic.

So there are lots of things that are classified as fiber, wide range of physical properties that a particular fiber might have, but these different properties produce different effects on the body.

So some fibers provide primarily microbiome support because they're actually fermented by gut microbiomes.

Some fibers can improve blood sugar, and we'll talk about how that happens, and others simply bulk up stool.

And again, the absence of those fibers would lead to altered bowel habits.

But importantly, not all fibers do the same things, and they don't all do them equally well.

So in the end, the function of fiber comes down to a bunch of properties of that specific fiber.

Okay, so the single most important one, and the one that I think most people will be familiar with, is what's called solubility.

Everybody's heard the term.