Another Reason To Eat Fiber: Less Food Poisoning

August 7, 2008

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Eating certain types of fiber may decrease the risk of getting the symptoms of food poisoning. So in addition, to having benefit such as lowering cholesterol, fiber may decrease the number of episodes of getting sick from food.

When we eat anything, or stuff gets in our mouth, there are bacteria, viruses and fungi that come along. Many of these microbes are not harmful, but some are such as Salmonella may make us sick.

However, what is commonly not realized is that, for most microbes, we need to get a certain dose to get sick. One Salmonella microbe is not going to make you sick. You need to consume lots of Salmonella bacteria to get sick. Most people need to have a dose of at least one million Salmonella bacteria to get sick. Of course, the dose number varies with the organism.

When microbes pass through the gut many will bind to the walls of the gut and then start to grow and divide. If there are enough of a particular “bad” one, then you get sick. Microbes will also bind to other things including some types of fiber. So if there is lots of fiber for the microbes to stick too, then sometimes the number that are available to stick to the gut wall, may be lowered enough, that you will not get sick.

Recent research (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 88:2026-2035, 2008) studied how well a number of common bacterial strains, including 4 strains of E. coli and 7 of Salmonella enterica, stuck to different types of fiber.

The two most effective types of fiber for most of the strains were sesame seed extract and konjac gum. (See the post about Shirataki Noodles to read about konjac.) Other sources of fiber that bound well to many of the strains were tomato, pumpkin and artichoke. Other sources of fiber effectively bound one or two strains.

Therefore, theoretically, a high fiber diet may on occassion reduce the number of bacteria able to bind to the gut wall, enough that there are no symptoms of food poisoning.

The bottom line is to eat a diet high in a range of sources of fiber. A varied diet may lower the risk of getting sick with food poisoning, as well as other health benefits.

photo credit: acme