Is that real fiber you’re eating, or is it a laboratory version?
We’ve all been told how important it is to up the amount of fiber in our diets.
It’s considered a health bonanza that can help you lose weight, control blood sugar, lower cholesterol, and keep you from starring in a laxative commercial!
And fiber is simple enough to find. It’s the non-digestible part of veggies, beans, nuts, and grains that works its magic as it travels through your digestive tract.
Have some whole-grain oats for breakfast and add five grams to your diet. Toss in a banana, some raisins, and some strawberries, and bingo — that’s around five to seven more!
But like other good health and nutrition ideas, Big Food is cashing in on fiber — big time.
Only instead of promoting fiber from Mother Nature’s bounty, Big Food is profiting off products from the laboratory of its mad scientists!
In a twist of fate, a spotlight has been focused on one of the biggest deceptions in the supermarket.
The FDA is hard at work making sure that food companies are following the law and doing everything necessary to roll out that new Nutrition Facts Label (NFL) on their products.
And while this new label, which was supposed to include the “latest scientific information” to help us choose healthy foods, has turned out to be pretty much a fiasco, it has done something useful.
That is, it’s put a giant question mark next to ingredients known as “functional fibers,” which can come from actual food, but more often than not originate in a laboratory.
These largely fake functional fibers are what enable food companies to make “high fiber” claims on things like yogurt, white bread, sugary cereals, and even water.
But to the shock and surprise of Big Food, the FDA’s final rule on this new nutrition labeling stated that for added ingredients to be called “fiber” on a product’s label, it has to have an actual health benefit.
A health benefit! Who would ever have thought?
That left a lot of companies — such as food giant General Mills, which makes a whole line of products that fiber-up with ingredients such as xanthan gum (made from fermented corn or soy) — in a panic.
And it raised the big question: Do functional fibers — like xanthan gum — really have any health benefits? Are the five grams of fiber in the Fiber One brownie bar, for example, as good for you as, say, that bowl of whole-grain oats?
Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has said that the group doesn’t believe any of the 26 functional fibers now up for FDA review (seven have already been cleared) should pass muster.
For one thing, according to Liebman, these junk foods dressed up in healthy labels can lead consumers to think high-fiber, low-nutrition products are good choices.
But even if they don’t have health benefits, is it still OK to eat them?
Maybe not.
Take polydextrose, for example. This functional fiber was actually invented by a Pfizer scientist back in the 1960s! Like the others, it’s a highly-processed ingredient, and it can trigger gas, stomach cramps, and diarrhea.
Other kinds of Frankenfibers have been found to knock down levels of beneficial bacteria in your gut, cause excessive gas and bloating, and even spike your blood sugar.
And, as experts say, they lack the vitamins, antioxidants and wide variety of nutrients that come from naturally high-fiber foods.
So when Big Food saw its billion-dollar fiber fakery scheme going down the tubes, it took action. One of its trade groups filed a petition with the FDA asking it to stop being so picky where fiber is concerned… and ditch that “health benefit” rule.
Whether the FDA will play along remains to be seen.
But getting enough of the real McCoy in your diet is about as easy as it gets: Simply eat more whole grains, fruits and veggies. And leave all those faux fiber foods right on the store shelf!
“The new FDA nutrition facts panel is being delayed by dispute over added fiber” AP, June 15, 2017, CNBC, cnbc.com
