"Fiber" the Newest Label Scam

You can find calcium in orange juice, vitamin B-12 in cereal and now you can find fiber in cookies, yogurt and ice cream. Fiber???? Well, sort of. Polydextrose is being added to foods that don't naturally contain fiber just like oranges don't naturally have calcium and grains don't have B-12. It is still unclear if single nutrients added to foods acts in the human body like nutrients present in the real food. But we do know that polydextrose does not decrease cholesterol or decrease incidence of heart disease as the naturally occurring fiber found in oats and many other whole foods. It may do nothing more than add bulk to the product--cheap filler. Slate.com has a great article on this topic, http://www.slate.com/id/2213354/pagenum/all/#p2.

So I am again telling you, EAT THE FOOD. The real whole food knows what it is doing. It has nutrients to keep our bodies functioning properly and hundreds of other properties that we haven't even discovered yet. These properties work in conjunction with each other within the food itself and lose their efficacy when separated out and added to some other food product. Stop looking for the Perfect food, it's already out there and it's called unprocessed whole food--fruits, vegetables, eggs, whole grains, vegetable oils, wild fish and grass fed beef.

When you start to see advertising for fiber in foods that are not primarily plant foods, realize that because of the lax labeling laws in the U.S., food companies are using the word "fiber" to entice you into buying their food product. You see fiber and think healthy. Never mind that the fiber in this product is likely not going to do you any good.