Fighting for fiber

UF Health Podcasts

Caveman Bob forages for a diet largely made up of fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes, if he’s lucky, he eats meat. He doesn’t overthink it. Bob is full and happy.

Now, let’s say Caveman Bob finds himself in a modern grocery store.

Bob is not happy. Most of what he sees doesn’t look like food. It’s all in boxes or bags or processed into something unrecognizable.

As simple as this caveman may be, he’s one up on modern humans when it comes to nutrition.

A recent study led by researchers from Israel offers further evidence that we all should swap junk food for fiber-based goodies like fruits and vegetables.

The study focused on a recently discovered but long-running key player in healthy intestinal flora — a bacteria known as ruminococcus [room-in-oh-cockus]. The microbe is key to breaking down the stringy cellulose that makes up fiber in the gut.

The researchers established that ruminococcus is more closely related to the ancestors of microbes found in modern cows, sheep and deer — also known as ruminants — than to the gut microbes of our own primate ancestors.

Thanks to dietary changes in industrialized societies, the microbe isn’t as abundant as it once was.

The bacteria still thrive in hunter-gatherer and rural societies but are absent or barely present in samples from people in industrialized cultures.

This is notable because fiber is key to healthy gut flora. With fewer healthy bacteria available to break fiber down, it can be tough to get the nutrients we need for a complete diet and balanced energy.

The answer is simple for those who would grab a bag of chips over a banana: Be like Bob. Eat more fiber.