| The reason most doctors, nutritionists, the USDA Food Guide Pyramid and the official USFDA Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) recommends a high-fiber diet is based on the faulty logic of Dr. Dennis Burkitt, a British surgeon working in Africa more than half a century ago. Dr. Burkitt's theory that barley bread prevented inflammatory bowel diseases has led to the current dietary fiber theory. Dr. Burkitt's fiber theory was developed in the late 1960's and was based on a impromptu hunch that fiber in the diet accounted for the difference in digestion system health between his African patients and white Englishmen living in Africa and England. His opinion was not based on any scientific studies. He did not perform controlled tests. He did not isolate the groups with only fiber as the variable. His assumption that fiber in the diet made his African patients more healthy was wrong. |
