Fiber reduces overall mortality by 23%
69 comments
·November 5, 2025loloquwowndueo
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.
NotMichaelBay
That's good that they "buried the lede", isn't it? Better than the product being mentioned early and often throughout the article.
brandonb
(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.
BigTTYGothGF
No, because then you'd have wasted time reading what turned out to be ad copy.
NotMichaelBay
You're implying that the article has no value because its purpose is to attract readers to ultimately make a purchase. But if you're trying to attract readers, arguably the best way to do that is to provide something of value to them.
If the goal is to attract readers without providing any value at all, it's extremely easy to do that nowadays with AI. And luckily it's just as easy to identify low-effort articles written by AI.
WrongOnInternet
Or the price of said product ($190)
brandonb
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.
jimkri
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 supplement, Spirulina & Chlorella, and it was moving through me so fast because I noticed I had no bulk from a low fiber diet. It made a huge improvement in bulking and slowed my bowel movements.
I also noticed before adding the fiber that I just would feel acidic, rude, or short-tempered in a different way, and my stomach was really acidic. Adding the fiber really did help, and it's cool to see articles and research backing it up.
m463
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.
thisislife2
I kind of wonder what the best form of added fiber should be.
There are plenty of foods rich in fiber that you don't need to consider supplements. The article itself mentions - Foods high in soluble fiber including avocados, whole grains, chickpeas, apples, lentils, broccoli, brussels sprouts, certain seeds, and artichokes. Most fruits and vegetables also have varying amount of fiber, as does some variety of rice, millets and wheat (that are common in some Asian diets). See https://www.cancer.org/cancer/survivorship/coping/nutrition/... for more.
m463
Have you ever actually compared the amount of fiber foods actually have?
I've tried it and it is hard.
Let's say you need 38g of fiber per day and you need to make up half of it.
You could eat 6 cups of brussel sprouts, or sprinkle 6 packets of benefiber on your food as you eat throughout the day.
Also, a lot of natural fiber in quantity has some unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects.
I'm not saying it is impossible, but it can be quite challenging to get all your fiber from natural sources in our society.
jimkri
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.
chrisweekly
The 3-in-1 capsules are no sugar, just 2 ingredients: psyllium husk, gelatin. Swallow w/ water, taste is not a factor.
jaapz
Why not just start eating foods with more fiber in them?
dpark
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.
m463
hmm... searching I find:
“Gel-forming psyllium is good for both softening hard stools and firming up loose stools. It is effective in preventing or relieving constipation. Research shows viscous fibers like psyllium or the fiber in oats can have some impact on improving blood sugar control and lowering blood cholesterol levels."
“Fermentable wheat dextrin does not form a gel with liquid, so it is not helpful for constipation or diarrhea. Nor can it help lower cholesterol or control blood sugar. It does, however, serve as a prebiotic, providing nourishment to the gut microbiota. When microbiota ferment fiber, they release gas, so wheat dextrin may cause bloating and flatulence."
https://www.nutritionletter.tufts.edu/gi-health/psyllium-vs-...
tanseydavid
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.
jimkri
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.
wil421
Did you have heartburn? I’m curious if adding Metamucil would help with that after hearing you feel less acidic.
jimkri
I do, and when I actively and consistently take Metamucil or a psyllium husk, it has helped. I recently stopped because I ran out and forgot to buy more, and I have noticed the heartburn again.
InMice
I think it can help for some. You have to be careful which brands, CR did tests for lead. yerba prima organic was the best
pfdietz
I've tried various fiber supplements, mostly for avoiding constipation, but what I found really worked is bran flakes.
kristianp
I've started eating more avocado for its good oils, turns out it is high fibre too. My cholesterol readings have improved marginally, HDL slightly higher, LDL slightly lower.
delichon
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.
brandonb
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.
delichon
It's a limitation of all epidemiological studies. These are a great way to target more expensive randomized controlled trials that are also more invasive by definition. Nutrition science has lots of those and needs more.
In an N=1 intervention study, I too found fiber to be health supporting, but that wasn't randomized or controlled.
sarchertech
It doesn’t, but we do have plausible mechanisms to explain the effect.
Fiber lowers LDL cholesterol, slows digestion, makes you feel full longer, and helps with regularity, so increasing your fiber intake is probably worth it anyway.
endoblast
Relatedly, microdosing with lactulose (which is very cheap) has a probiotic effect.
cassepipe
I personally macrodose on lettuce. Real cheap and easy to source.
Some of the most beautiful turds ever made, some would even the most beautiful
pinkmuffinere
> You can’t improve what you don’t measure
I hate the way this saying is commonly used today. I think a literal interpretation is untrue, but many people feel that a literal interpretation is true. For instance, humans get better at speaking whatever language they are surrounded with, even though that is not being actively measured by some metric. It is probably being measured by some implicit cycle in the human brain, but that is not the kind of explicit measurement that people would demand based on this saying. Some other examples that you can improve without an explicit measurement:
- Camera stability (you can usually "see" it immediately, without an engineering metric)
- Large changes in customer satisfaction (for fine tuning you probably need a metric, but for large changes, it will be obvious)
- Kindness
I'm not saying that measurement is purposeless. Just that it is not always necessary. Not everything needs to be measured. Also, why do generally smart people buy this platitude, when others will obviously not be taken as law? I don't see engineering orgs living by "closed mouths don't get fed", or "tidy desk, tidy mind", or "if momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy". But somehow "You can't improve what you don't measure" became law.
I realize this is only tangential. I guess I've been saving this rant for a while.
arp242
I agree with what you're saying; in the most extreme scenario you end up with the McNamara fallacy, and it's bizarrely common on e.g. HN. But I also think the platitude is appropriate in this case – I probably eat a decent amount of fibre, but is it enough? I don't really know. I'd need to measure it (and it's very possible I could be vastly under- or overestimating some things about my diet).
qoez
Just eat lots of beans and lentils. No need for an app or 'fiber gummies'
InMice
I like to pair those with rice so their amino acids compliment each other.
cassepipe
Lettuce because I am lazy
ratelimitsteve
anything leafy as well, though those won't have the protein boost of legumes
hinkley
It was only about five years ago I realized that pectin is a soluble fiber. My entire childhood is a lie. All that lovely jam and jelly was a delivery mechanism.
panarky
Does eating fiber by itself reduce mortality?
Or do healthy and wealthy people with active lifestyles and excellent healthcare happen to also eat more fiber?
brandonb
This is honestly a limitation of nearly all nutrition research -- it's based on observational data.
Part of the reason we expect fiber to reduce mortality, rather than simply being a marker of other factors correlated with mortality, is that we can identify physiological mechanisms. For example, for cardiovascular mortality, fiber reduces LDL cholesterol / ApoB which lowers heart attack and stroke risk.
e584
Oh wow, I'm sure the authors of the meta study never considered that...
tanseydavid
Ask your doctor.
stabbles
Funny how the first suggestion is supplements, the second whole foods.
ratelimitsteve
what do I need to get my mortality up to 123%? I'm deadmaxxing
I don't know about my physical health, but mentally I feel more calm / content when I eat fiber rich food. I partly understand that this is because fiber rich food ensures slower release of sugar, from the food you eat into your blood, preventing the sudden spike and fall you get in sugar levels from food with low fiber (most retail snacks and junk food). I can also assert that bowel movement does feel "good" with fiber in your diet. And you feel satiated faster, and for a longer period of time, with it.