Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Fiber, digestibility and transit time

Chopping, pureeing, blending etc will definitely make the pieces of fiber in food much smaller. This does not change the fact that humans do not digested fiber in their stomachs or small intestines. The smaller pieces of fiber will still pass through to the colon just like the large pieces where they will be fermented by the colonic bacteria. And generally speaking the amount of 'digestive energy' you body needs to move IF and SF to the colon will likely be similar.

However, it is possible that when IF is in finer state it mixes more evenly in the stomach juices and it may be more evenly distributed in the SF gel in the stomach and intestine. This could be an advantage to an IBSer. For example, instead of feeding the colonic bacteria a 'big chunck' fiber to ferment which might produce a lot of gas quickly, the fine IF embedded in the SF gel might slowly feed the bacteria resulting in less gas. Or the SF might buffer the stimulus effect of IF on the GI tract. It is a complicated area of investigation for which I have not seen much information.

Oh gosh - I don't think raw food is as digestible as cooked food. Food is composed of many more things than IF and SF. Fiber only accounts for a small percentage of the weight. And of course there is some degradation of fiber in the cooking process.

It is hard to say what cooking actually does to fiber. Foods are composed of many different types of fiber. The salts, acids (lemon, vinegar, etc), minerals in which the food is cooked; the length of time cooked, etc will determine how each type of fiber is affected.

The GI tract is the largest and one of the most poorly understood organs in the body. I find it to be a fascinating complex biomolecular wonder rather than a piece of machinery .

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