Fiber Fueled Quotes

“The single greatest predictor of a healthy gut microbiome is the diversity of plants in one’s diet.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“More specifically, he found that the consumption of thirty different plants in a given week was the greatest predictor of gut microbial diversity.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“In fact, 90 percent of serotonin and 50 percent of dopamine are actually produced in the gut.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Sadly, the pharmaceutical industry has hijacked our health care system. Big Pharma runs the studies, they control the research,”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Literally right this second, there are over five hundred million nerves in your intestines sending feedback to your brain through the vagus nerve. That’s five times more nerves than you’ll find in your spinal cord. That is a lot of information!”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American gets just 11 percent of their calories from whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. That’s”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“In the words of Ben Franklin, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“What about fermented dairy? Why no love for kefir, yogurt, and other fermented dairy products? Let’s look more closely at these foods. As we know, fermentation transforms our food and in many cases makes it easier to digest. This is particularly true with dairy products, where fermentation will remove most lactose. In fact, most hard cheeses, kefir, and yogurt are generally well tolerated by lactose-intolerant individuals. There are also some studies suggesting that kefir, yogurt, and other fermented dairy products may have health benefits. However, these studies were largely fraught with methodological limitations or were overtly paid for by the dairy industry. So what are we supposed to make of corporate-sponsored research that is essentially a form of marketing and only being published because it makes the food look good and the conclusions are carefully guarded to protect the product? From my perspective, why take any risk when you can find delicious fermented nondairy yogurt and kefir? In particular, I love a coconut milk kefir that’s available in Canada. No matter what you choose, make sure to pay attention to the sugar content, which is one of the big issues with all commercial products of this sort. Also, it should be noted that water kefir has absolutely nothing to do with milk and is much more similar to kombucha.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“How to be gluten-free and still nurture your gut So what’s a sensible approach to gluten consumption? Well if you absolutely need to be gluten-free, then I would recommend paying special attention to your whole-grain intake. Since wheat is the dominant form of whole grain in the United States, you need to make sure that you’re adequately supporting your gut microbiome. Thankfully, there are some delicious gluten-free whole grains available for you to routinely consume: quinoa, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, oats, and brown rice. Get them into your belly! On the flip side, if gluten is a part of your diet, which it should be for most of you, I’m not encouraging you to go eat more processed foods. Most gluten-containing foods are processed foods. What I encourage you to eat is more unprocessed or minimally processed wheat, barley, and rye. Look for whole-grain products, like whole-grain bread and pasta when they are called for. But remember not to overdo it. Moderation is just fine.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“A closer look at inflammatory foods in the gut Studies keep showing that the complex carbohydrates you’ll find in whole fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains are anything but inflammatory. They’re actually anti-inflammatory. But we rely on our gut microbiome to process them, and if there’s damage to the gut then it’s also impaired in carbohydrate processing, which leads to digestive distress. That’s not inflammation, that’s just sloppy processing. It doesn’t hurt you beyond the acute symptoms. But what does hurt you is the effect that you see from animal product consumption—less SCFA-producing good bacteria, more inflammatory bacteria, increased intestinal permeability, release of bacterial endotoxin, creation of carcinogenic secondary bile salts/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons/N-nitroso compounds/heterocyclic aromatic amines, and vascular disease-fueling TMAO. Yes, it is easier for our body to digest and process meat. We don’t rely on our microbiome as much for that. So you may not feel any discomfort, but keep in mind what’s happening inside you. Silent but deadly.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Got Milk? For the record, you shouldn’t. I am not advocating for training your gut to handle lactose. We learned about the effect of animal protein and saturated fat on the gut in Chapter 2—less SCFA-producing bacteria, more inflammatory bacteria, increased TMAO production, increased intestinal permeability, and increases in bacterial endotoxin. As we’ve done in the past, when we examine the whole food rather than a sum of its parts, we find that dairy products have been associated with prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Also the link to bone health turns out to be a myth—a prospective study of ninety-six thousand people over twenty-two years showed that milk consumption during teenage years did not protect against hip fracture later in life. In fact, men who drank more milk as a teenager actually had increased risk of hip fracture in the study. In a study of women in Sweden, high milk intake was associated with increased risk of bone fracture, heart disease, cancer, and premature death. One of the first things I do with my patients who have gas, bloating, or diarrhea is to eliminate dairy. You would not believe how many of them are cured just by doing this. Sorry, but milk doesn’t do a body good. The irony is that lactose, which has been vilified through the years as evil, is probably the most redeeming thing about dairy because lactose is actually a prebiotic and can have a beneficial effect on the gut microbiota.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Should you be eating soy? There’s been some debate about soy due to the perception of its carrying estrogen, but I want you to understand that phytoestrogens aren’t estrogen, nor do they act like human estrogen. Instead, phytoestrogens are isoflavones, one of the unique phytochemicals in soy beans. There are actually three soy isoflavones: genistein, daidzein, and glycitein. They have a number of health benefits, including: lowering cholesterol, strengthening bones, treating menopausal symptoms, lowering risk of coronary heart disease, and reducing risk of prostate/colon/breast/ovarian cancers. Want even more good news about soy? There are certain gut bacteria that can convert soy isoflavones into an even more beneficial compound called equol. This is like a supercharged isoflavone, giving you even more cardiovascular, bone, and menopausal health benefits. Unfortunately, you need to have the bacteria in order to do this. Equol can be produced by 50 to 60 percent of Asian people but just 30 percent of Westerners. For what it’s worth, diets high in carbohydrates (really meaning fiber) and low in saturated fat are associated with equol production, while antibiotics appear to hinder it. I recommend consuming only non-GMO and organic soy in its whole-foods forms: edamame, tofu, miso, tempeh, tamari, and unsweetened soy milk. Model your soy consumption after the way they do it in Asia. For some delicious ways to consume soy, check out the recipes in Chapter 10.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“The thing about processed foods is that you’re starting with something that’s healthy in its natural state, and you are modifying it. As you progressively change that food, it becomes less and less nutritionally valuable. At some point, the food that started healthy becomes poison. If you go back one hundred years, this simply wasn’t a part of our diet. Take a moment to think about that: the sheer volume of man-made chemicals we’re putting into our bodies, and the unrealistic expectation that our microbiota will be able to process and eliminate them without any damage. It’s a shock that we don’t drop dead from this stuff and a total testament to the adaptability of our microbiome, even if this is likely contributing to mass bacterial extinction. It comes as no surprise that every 10 percent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with more than a 10 percent increased risk of developing cancer and a 14 percent risk of early death. So what happens when you hit American levels of consumption—50 or 60 percent? I don’t think that every food additive is harmful in the long term, but we don’t know and likely will never know. There’s only one foolproof way to protect yourself from the potential poisons in our diet—get rid of them!”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“For example, two commonly used emulsifiers—carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80—reduce microbial diversity, induce inflammation, and promote obesity and colitis in mice. Titanium dioxide (TiO) nanoparticles, found in more than nine hundred food products, worsen intestinal inflammation. Additives such as these were snuck into our diet through the “Generally Recognized As Safe” loophole. They were GRASed into our diet. Yes, GRAS needs to be used as a verb because that’s the only way to adequately describe the careless acceptance of chemicals into our food supply by our regulatory agencies.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Why I buy organic whenever possible By definition, if a food is certified organic it is not genetically modified and was not sprayed by glyphosate. I don’t think this is the only reason to buy organic produce, however. I view it as an investment in my health, our family’s health, and the health of our planet. The chemicals being used in modern agriculture aren’t affecting only us; they’re affecting the health of our soil. If you don’t have healthy soil, you can’t have nutritious food. Human health starts in the dirt. We need to protect this precious commodity. When you spend your money, you are placing your vote in a way. You are empowering an industry. I, for one, choose to empower our organic farmers and regenerative agriculture. They are healers just as our doctors are. Only with them can we enrich our soil, increase biodiversity, and heal ecosystems large (our planet) and small (your gut). Let’s rally behind them and give them the support they deserve.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Imagine your gut microbiota as controlling a light switch and the wiring behind the wall is your genetic code. The gut microbiota is not changing the wiring behind the wall, but it can turn the lights on or off. You can’t change your genetic code, but you can effect which genes get turned on or off.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“We have a health care system that’s great at identifying problems once they exist and then trying to manage them with a combination of pills and procedures. Sure, we can improve symptoms or slow disease progression in some cases, but it always comes at a cost. It’s sick care, not health care. There is little to no focus on prevention.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“If I were to boldly define the entirety of human health, there would be five essential elements: immunity, metabolism, hormonal balance, cognition, and gene expression. That would cover our bases for everything we need to thrive as humans, and what’s amazing is that the microbiota is intertwined with all five axes of human health.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fibre Fuelled: The Bestselling Plant-Based Gut Health Plan to Lose Weight, Restore Health and Optimise Your Microbiome

“*BAM* and throw some stuff in the mason”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“You shouldn’t drink more than 4 ounces in a day in my opinion, and I always dilute down my kombucha with water. It still has plenty of flavor but isn’t quite so acidic. This helps alleviate one of the concerns of kombucha’s acidity, which is that”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“By sprinkling black pepper on your curry, you increase the bioavailability of curcumin by 2,000 percent.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“In a randomized controlled trial, study subjects who substituted whole grains for refined grains saw growth of SCFA-producing bacteria Lachnospira, increased SCFA levels, and a decrease in pro-inflammatory Enterobacteriaceae. They also noted improvement in the immune system and no effect on gut inflammation.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“We’ve made health too complicated with our extensive lists of foods to avoid, complex percentages of fats-to-protein-to-carb ratios, elimination diets, calorie counting, even weighing our food—and despite all these rules, we’re not getting any better. It just doesn’t need to be this complicated. Diversity of plants. That’s it. That’s all you have to remember. Done. No more annoying food lists. If you follow this one rule, it will lead you to better health. And it will always be the truth no matter what happens: No matter what changes on this planet or in our lifestyles, this core tenet of better health will stay the same.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“There are five types of microorganisms residing within you. They include bacteria, yeasts, parasites, viruses, and archaea.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“The average American eats twenty-three pounds of pizza, twenty-four pounds of artificial sweeteners, twenty-nine pounds of french fries, and thirty-one pounds of cheese per year.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“In March 2015, the World Health Organization determined that the herbicide glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” A more recent study found a 41 percent increase in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in those with high exposure to glyphosate.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Meanwhile, the use of toxic herbicides, such as glyphosate in Roundup, has increased fifteenfold since GMOs were first introduced”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome

“Modern health care, drugs, and your microbiota It comes as no surprise that antibiotics absolutely decimate the gut microbiota. Just five days of ciprofloxacin wipes out about a third of gut bacteria and your gut microbiota are never quite the same. Most species recover within four weeks, but some are still absent after six months.”
― Will Bulsiewicz, Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome