How taking a “serving size” of dietary fiber supplements can have such a big impact on your bowel movements even though a serving size is only 2% of your daily dietary fiber needs?
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A serving size of 1 teaspoon of Metamucil, a common fiber supplement, has about 11% of your daily dietary fiber: https://www.metamucil.com/en-us/products/fiber-powders/sugar-free-orange-smooth (under Supplement Facts).
You are supposed to take this 3 times a day for a total of 33% of daily fiber.
33% can be a large increase in fiber intake if you normally don’t have much fiber in your diet.
They likely don’t.
Most value of most supplements you can just go and buy at the pharmacy are debatable at best, a waste of money at worst.
So you make a great point, how does taking 2% of the dietary fiber you need help your bowel movements/health in general?
Well it is probably better than nothing, but chances are it isn’t really doing anything to help.
Remember that scene in the matrix where Neo asks why his muscles hurt and Morpheus says “because you’ve never used them before?” I feel like this is similar.
You probably just don’t eat right and this is fixing a problem.
I had the same experience, actually.
I like the store brand orange fiber powder. I have a teaspoon in a glass of cold brewed green tea, a couple times a day. Super cheap too.
Helped me to eat better as well.
It depends on the actual type/form of the supplement, but think of it as similar to the difference between just using water pressure and soap to clean dishes and using a scrubber.
It also helps to understand how your digestive system works. It is not like a straw or a water slide. It is more like taking a long uninflated balloon and trying to move a marble through it with your fingers. In the case of your digestive system, there are muscles that contract to push the material through. Fiber helps this by keeping everything “together”, so the movement of the muscles allows more of that material to be moved more easily.
Dietary fiber is not hard to get naturally in your diet, but modern western diets do not have as much as is recommended for most people. Many vegetables (legumes, peas, beans, and more), fruits, and whole-grain foods have dietary fiber, but many of us skip out on the veggies, raw fruits, and whole-grain, in favor of processed foods, low fiber foods, and generally foods that taste good but not especially nutritious.
Dietary fiber absorbs water which makes your poo softer and easier to pass. The fiber is also food for the microbes further down into your gut. Until they get used to the new fiber intake, you’ll fart a bit while those microbes grow to meet the challenge. I eat two metamucil cookies a day and I’m frickin’ GOLD, baby. I never knew a good poo until metamucil cookies.
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