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Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

empirical.health

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Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#51

Post by WrongOnInternet »

NotMichaelBay wrote: post #39
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

Oh, way to bury the lede. > You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If you’re trying to get more fiber—or to optimize other heart health nutrients like saturated fat, sodium, and potassium—Empirical Health is designed to make tracking very easy. You can’t improve what you can’t measure and our product coincidentally helps you measure this.

That's good that they "buried the lede", isn't it? Better than the product being mentioned early and often throughout the article.

Or the price of said product ($190)

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#53

Post by dpark »

m463 wrote: post #29
jimkri wrote: post #12

Super interesting to read! I have noticed a huge benefit from just adding Metamucil to my diet. The following lines from the article really resonate. >Insoluble fibers have fecal-bulking characteristics that may promote regular bowel movements and avoid constipation. >"Specifically, soluble fiber binds to bile acids in the intestine" I have started to take Metamucil more frequently because I was taking an algae suppl…

I kind of wonder what the best form of added fiber should be. The thing about metamucil is that it has either added sugar or artificial sweeteners. the main ingredient is psyllium husk. I like benefiber better - no taste, just sprinkle on food. But I don't know how wheat dextrin compares to psyllium husk (or other fibers) A nurse I talked to takes psyllium husk by itself, and I wonder if that is better than metamucil…

Benefiber is wheat dextrin. It doesn’t have most of the properties that you want from a fiber supplement. It gets digested by gut microbes so it doesn’t provide bulk. It doesn’t gel so it doesn’t help with cholesterol or blood sugar.

Near as I can tell Benefiber is basically a placebo. People feel good for adding “fiber” to their diet but it has none of the effects of psyllium husk or oat fiber.

Psyllium husk by itself (power, not capsules) is utterly disgusting by the way. Tastes like dirt. You can hide it in protein shakes or similar but I personally struggle to get it down with just water.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#54

Post by jimkri »

m463 wrote: post #29
jimkri wrote: post #12

Super interesting to read! I have noticed a huge benefit from just adding Metamucil to my diet. The following lines from the article really resonate. >Insoluble fibers have fecal-bulking characteristics that may promote regular bowel movements and avoid constipation. >"Specifically, soluble fiber binds to bile acids in the intestine" I have started to take Metamucil more frequently because I was taking an algae suppl…

I kind of wonder what the best form of added fiber should be. The thing about metamucil is that it has either added sugar or artificial sweeteners. the main ingredient is psyllium husk. I like benefiber better - no taste, just sprinkle on food. But I don't know how wheat dextrin compares to psyllium husk (or other fibers) A nurse I talked to takes psyllium husk by itself, and I wonder if that is better than metamucil…

This is a really good callout. I think trying different types helps to see what works best for you and to fit into your lifestyle.

I also have plain psyllium husk, and I avoided it because I liked the sugar of the Metamucil. But I have been focusing on lowering my sugar, so I'm switching to the plain psyllium husk, and it's just as easy to drink; it was really a little mental game of how it would taste, haha.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#55

Post by brandonb »

NotMichaelBay wrote: post #39
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

Oh, way to bury the lede. > You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If you’re trying to get more fiber—or to optimize other heart health nutrients like saturated fat, sodium, and potassium—Empirical Health is designed to make tracking very easy. You can’t improve what you can’t measure and our product coincidentally helps you measure this.

That's good that they "buried the lede", isn't it? Better than the product being mentioned early and often throughout the article.

(OP) Yep--this is my philosophy. Obviously I'd love it if everybody used our product to improve their heart health, but I think it's better to write stuff that's informative and if people genuinely have the problem, then they can try us out.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#56

Post by brandonb »

WrongOnInternet wrote: post #51
NotMichaelBay wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good that they "buried the lede", isn't it? Better than the product being mentioned early and often throughout the article.

Or the price of said product ($190)

FYI: $190 is the price for the comprehensive health panel which includes a blood test and video visit with a doctor.

You can track nutrition for free within the iPhone/Android apps.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#57

Post by jimkri »

tanseydavid wrote: post #31
jimkri wrote: post #12

Super interesting to read! I have noticed a huge benefit from just adding Metamucil to my diet. The following lines from the article really resonate. >Insoluble fibers have fecal-bulking characteristics that may promote regular bowel movements and avoid constipation. >"Specifically, soluble fiber binds to bile acids in the intestine" I have started to take Metamucil more frequently because I was taking an algae suppl…

I avoided Metamucil for a long time, because "only old people use that." Contempt without prior investigation and denial of my mortality is the true reason. But once I started taking it I was sorely disappointed in myself that I did not start at least 10 years sooner. Perhaps un-branded supplemental fiber is unburdened by the old people connotation? I probably still would have resisted.

I thought the same thing! My mom used it when I was younger, and I always passed on trying it because of that random memory and association.

I just got past the Metamucil to plain psyllium husk. I felt the plain version was going to taste bad, but it was just plain and not sugary. It's funny the concepts that can lead to certain small behaviors.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#58

Post by brandonb »

slabity wrote: post #46
brandonb wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Photos are used to track nutrition -- you choose each photo to upload within the app. Location is only used, in context, to help find healthy meals near you. (You can use the app with or without enabling this location-based feature; if you don't use it, then we don't ask for location.) Where are you seeing messages? We don't track messages, so this is probably a mistake in our metadata.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.empiric... Sorry for being pessimistic, it's just whenever I see a health related app I immediately look at the data collected and data shared sections and get concerned. Especially if it's being shared with insurance companies. Quick edit: That "messages" part might be only in-app ones. Google does not word that well in the summary.

I see -- yeah, the Android metadata says "in-app messages". That refers to features where you can message support or a doctor within the app. We don't attempt to read your text messages or anything like that.

Your data isn't shared with insurance companies.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#59

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

NotMichaelBay wrote: post #39
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

Oh, way to bury the lede. > You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If you’re trying to get more fiber—or to optimize other heart health nutrients like saturated fat, sodium, and potassium—Empirical Health is designed to make tracking very easy. You can’t improve what you can’t measure and our product coincidentally helps you measure this.

That's good that they "buried the lede", isn't it? Better than the product being mentioned early and often throughout the article.

No, because then you'd have wasted time reading what turned out to be ad copy.

Re: Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%

#60

Post by brandonb »

delichon wrote: post #49

The meta-analysis is of epidemiological data, which shows association, but since there is no intervention, cannot show causation and does not claim to. It does not distinguish an effect of fiber from healthy user bias. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3077477/

Unfortunately, this is a limitation of nearly all nutritional studies.

Partly we use mechanistic evidence to separate cause from effect--that's part of why the article goes into detail about, e.g., how soluble fiber binds to bile in the liver. If there's an association between A and B, and a known physiological mechanism where A causes C which causes B, it makes it more likely that ultimately A is the cause of B.

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