THE FIBER GAP · LESSON 3 OF 5

There is no such thing as “fiber.”

Hi Klop,

Nutrition labels do you a disservice. They print one number called fiber, as though it were one substance. It is not. Different types of fiber do different jobs, and the reason people fail at this is that they load up on one and assume they are covered.

Insoluble — The Broom

Bulk + Speed

Cellulose and lignin. Vegetable skins, wheat bran, celery, the stringy parts. It does not dissolve and your bacteria barely touch it — a real job, but a mechanical one, and adding too much too fast can make you uncomfortable.

Soluble & Viscous — The Gel

Slows Digestion

Pectin, beta-glucan, psyllium, glucomannan. These dissolve and thicken, slowing how fast your stomach empties — a flatter glucose curve, and why oats, apples and beans keep you full in a way a rice cake does not.*

Fermentable — The Food

Feeds Your Bacteria

Inulin, acacia gum, resistant starch — the one your bacteria eat, the one that makes butyrate, the one that moves GLP-1 and PYY.* If you only focus on one function, make it this one. It’s the one most people aren’t getting enough of.

A note on where they overlap

These are not tidy boxes. Psyllium is soluble but poorly fermented, so it gels without feeding much. Inulin ferments fast and high in the colon, which is why it is the one that makes people gassy. Resistant starch ferments slower and further down, which is why it is generally the better-tolerated way in — and why we built the jar around it rather than around inulin.

Now the shopping list

Here is roughly what things carry, so you can stop guessing.

• ½ cup cooked lentils or black beans — 7 to 8 g

• 1 cup raspberries — 8 g

• 1 medium artichoke — 7 g

• ½ avocado — 5 g

• 1 tbsp chia — 5 g

• 1 cup broccoli, cooked — 5 g

• ½ cup oats, dry — 4 g

• 1 scoop Extra Fiber — 4 g

Look at that list honestly and you will see the arithmetic. Beans at lunch, berries at breakfast, a vegetable at dinner and a scoop somewhere gets you into the twenties without heroics. From there, keep adding fiber-rich foods throughout the day to work your way toward 50.

Hit your gram number and you’re covered.

Different fibers,
different jobs.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

Insoluble fiber (the broom) adds bulk and speeds transit — mechanical, not metabolic
Soluble, viscous fiber (the gel) slows digestion and flattens your glucose curve.
Fermentable fiber (the food) is what your bacteria actually eat — and the one most people are short on.

THE FIBER GAP · LESSON 3 OF 5

There is no such thing as “fiber.”

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

DO THIS WEEK

Pick two items off the shopping list above and put them on tomorrow’s plate. That is the whole assignment.