Bulking the public: food companies, cash in on fiber

Nutrition Action Healthletter, July-August, 2008 by Bonnie Liebman, David Schardt, Uriyoan Colon-Ramos

"She's almost had a whole day's worth [of fiber] already," remarks a supermarket employee in the TV commercial as he watches a woman eat her fifth free sample of Fiber One Yogurt.

Do five yogurts--each spiked with "20% of your Daily Value of Fiber" from a white powder called maltodextrin--supply a day's worth of the fiber that experts recommend? Hardly.

But that hasn't stopped the food industry. As long as isolated fibers--like maltodextrin, inulin, polydextrose, and oat fiber--count as fiber on food labels, manufacturers will keep dumping them into everything from water to ice cream.

Who are they kidding?

Unfortunately, millions. And, once again, the government seems to be looking the other way.

Fiber None

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"35% of the Daily Value of Fiber," shouts the label of Fiber One Chewy Bars. "Sure you want fiber, but you want it to taste great!"

"Great," according to General Mills, means bars made out of chicory root extract (inulin), rolled oats, caramel flavored drops (mostly sugar and palm or palm kernel oil), crisp rice (mostly rice flour and sugar), and assorted sugars, oils, artificial colors, etc. It's more "gooey" than "great."

What are the bars good for? "Fiber can help satisfy your appetite and manage weight," says the label. "Research suggests that people who have higher fiber intakes tend to have healthier body weights."

Huh? Those people were eating whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, not calorie-dense bars made of caramel drops squeezed between oats and sweetened rice flour.

Fiber can also "help keep your digestive system on track," says the box. To most people, that means fiber helps keep you regular. And that's true for some fibers (like wheat bran). But inulin, the main fiber added to Fiber One bars, had no clear impact on regularity in the best studies done so far. (1,2)

Bars from Atkins, Curves, Kashi, and South Beach also add inulin or other isolated fibers to boost their fiber stats. Of course, companies have to pump up all the nutrients in their bars or people wouldn't buy them instead of real food.

(1) Eur: J. Clin. Nutr 53:1,1999.

(2) Eur. d. Nutr. 98: 540, 2007.

Smart Scam

"Delicious white pasta plus 3x the fiber," says the label. That's all the excuse some shoppers will need to choose Smart Taste over whole-grain pasta.

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Smart Taste is "an excellent source of fiber," notes the Web site, adding that diets high in fiber are "linked to a reduced risk for heart disease," "lower the risk of becoming obese ... of developing diabetes ... of diverticula disease," and "relieve and prevent constipation."

Of course, those potential benefits were seen in people who got their fiber from nutrient-rich whole grains, not from the "modified wheat starch" in Smart Taste.

The starch is made by altering the chemical bonds in ordinary wheat starch so that human digestive enzymes can't break them down.

What good does that laboratory-made fiber do? Since few, if any, published studies have tested it on people, there's no way to know.

Skinny How?

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How does The Skinny Cow line of low-fat ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones, and fudge bars manage to supply 3 to 4 grams of fiber per serving?

A pinch of inulin and a touch of polydextrose, my dear Watson.

Does either one do anything? Inulin doesn't seem to have an impact on regularity (see "Fiber None"). Polydextrose, a "low-calorie bulking agent," may.

Food manufacturers like polydextrose because it has only 1 calorie per gram, versus sugar's 4 calories, yet it takes up as much room as sugar. It counts as fiber on food labels because it isn't digested by human digestive enzymes. (It's partially digested by bacteria in the large intestine.)

Does polydextrose help with regularity by acting as a bulking agent in your GI tract?

In one industry-sponsored study in China, 8 to 10 grams a day boosted stool weight) But one study isn't enough. And in other studies, people reported gas or diarrhea, especially at higher doses. (2)

That's why the Food and Drug Administration requires any food with more than 15 grams of polydextrose per serving to warn consumers that "sensitive individuals may experience a laxative effect from excessive consumption of this product."

Even less may bother some people. But when you're talking ice cream, even less can easily become even more, and The Skinny Cow could become The Bloated Bovine.

(1) Am. J, Clin. NutR 72: 1503, 2000.

(2) Aliment. Pharmacol, Ther. 2:513, 1988.

Not All Bran

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People who eat more fiber--especially from bran--have a lower risk of heart disease. (1) And a serving of Original All-Bran cereal has 10 grams of fiber--all from wheat bran.

But not all All-Brans are created equal. The name refers to a line of six cereals, two crackers, two fiber bars, and two drink mixes. Some have no bran at all.

Take All-Bran Fiber Drink Mix. It's mostly polydextrose, artificial sweeteners (including poorly tested acesulfame-potassium), and food dyes. The drink's 10 grams of polydextrose might help keep you regular (and then some--see "Skinny How?"), but bran has nothing to do with it.