Fiber Myth and Cholesterol Reduction Hoax
Here is an entertaining monologue by Konstantin Monastyrsky: Dietary fiber in food and supplements is broadly promoted for the prevention of heart disease because, allegedly, it lowers cholesterol. Actually, this is a lie — not only does fiber not reduce cholesterol or prevent heart disease, it also increases your risk of atherosclerosis, heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest, and stroke by reducing HDL (“good†) cholesterol and blocking the assimilation of essential nutrients.
This is for all you study junkies.
Author’s note:
I once got a call from a high-flying lawyer, a friend of a friend who had given him a copy of Fiber Menace to ponder over. I met the guy only once — a distinguished-looking fellow in his early sixties, a “power broker†directly from central casting. He was married to a very attractive lady, two decades younger, also a prominent personality in her own right.
Out of the blue, he had called to tell me that my book was “crap,†and that what I know about nutrition is “crap†too. All that, because the fiber from rolled oats that he had been eating for ages kept him young, fit, and healthy. And if I had any doubts about his vitality, then just one look at his wife would prove it “beyond a reasonable doubt.â€
Taken aback by this unusually sharp affront, I still managed to ask him what his reaction would be, if I had thrashed out any of his legal opinions just as categorically as he had just trashed my book based on my recent experience winning a case in the Small Claims Court. He hung up without answer.
Few months later this cocksure boor ended up in hospital with a massive stroke from which he never fully recovered. Had he read my book without prejudice, he — for all I know — might still have been sowing his wild oats instead of withering away in the wheelchair.
Konstantin Monastyrsky