Review of Fiber Menace: The Truth About the Leading Role of Fiber in Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Colon Cancer (Paperback)

I had to order this book via Amazon USA because it is not available in Europe. His basic recommendations, not do eat too much fiber and not to overdose water intake, seem to make sense. His hints how to fight obstipation caused by low-carb/low-fiber-diets are also as reasonable as the recommendation to make the transition vom a high-fiber/carb-diet to a low-fiber/carb one slowly to prevent negative side effects of the carbohydrate withdrawal.

But there are also some serious flaws. First is his completely wrong reception of the cause of Atkins' death. As we know, Atkins died from an accident with severe damage of his skull and brain. At the time of this accident he was not obese at all and did not suffer from heart disease. But Monastyrsky states Atkins died from a cardiac arrest, "unquestionably from obesity-related complications [...] and he died morbidly obese".Monastyrsky also seems not to have really understood the principles behind ketosis. I certainly do NOT endorse the Atkins-Diet nor his very problemable "induction phase", but I really dislike lay-journalists/writers who investigate inaccurately or do not fully understand what they are writing about.

Secondly Mr. Monastyrskys calculations about the daily need of carbohydrates (200 g/day is way to high) and the maximum intake of carbohydrates, fats and proteins to allow fat loss are quite weird. He claims that only with NO carbohydrate and max. 1 gram of fats and proteins per kg bodyweight, weightloss would be possible. Following this idea, a person of 75 kg would be allowed to have NO carbohydrates, 75 g fats and 75 g protein per day. This sums up to 975 calories - a very very low energy diet that virtually forces the body to engage all its energy-saving capabilities and will be the best basis for rapid regain of weight after stopping this very questionable approach. "Hello jo-jo". Weight- and fat-loss occurs as a matter of course with every longer lasting reduction of energy-intake below the requirements of the body. There is no scientific proof for Mr. Monastyrskys ideas concerning the required mix of macronutrients at all.

Thirdly Mr. Monastyrksy misinterpretes the term of "waterintoxication" he cites from the Schmidt/Thews-Textbook of physiology. Schmidt/Thews say that taking LARGER AMOUNTS of hypotonic solutions WITHIN A SHORT TIME into the body may cause waterintoxication. This is a wellknown fact inside the medical world, but it is crucial to see the term WITHIN A SHORT TIME, Monastyrsky seems to peculate in his further interpretation. The official recommendation of "8 glasses of water a day" may be questionable, but does of course NOT lead to "water-intoxication" when taken - as supposed - throughout the day. Only taking big amounts of hypotonic fluid all of a sudden may cause problems in the stated way, but nobody recommends this.

Fourthly Mr. Monastyrsky is very eager to promote the selling of his quite expensive food-additives through his website he cites over and over again throughout his book. This is very annoying.

Summary: Mr. Monastyrskys ideas seem to make some sense specially for people who experience problems from consuming too much fiber. But there is no adequate scientific evidence for his allegations. Readers who want to follow his suggestions therefore should be careful not to be drawn into esoteric spheres where they might lose their sense for reality. Monastyrsky might also have considered to publish his thinkings in an article in a medical or journal of nutrition (but that would have arisen the 'danger' of an external quality-control). His basic ideas would fit comfortably in a relatively short article and it does not seem to be necessary to spread it redundantly over more than 280 pages.




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