Fiber, or roughage, is not digested by humans and has 0 calories. It helps you digest food and helps you pooh easier, which is why people eat fiber when constipated. There are two kinds of Fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber helps you digest food better because it slows down digestion. Oat Bran, barley, nuts, seeds, and beans all are good sources of soluble fiber. Wheat bran, vegetables and whole grains are good sources of insoluble fiber and your best bet when using fiber to help you pooh faster and more efficiently. Fiber should be increased in your diet slowly to avoid gas and stomach pains, unless you are really in need.


some info from www.slrhc.org

Fi"ber, Fi"bre, (), n. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]

1.

One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle.

2.

Any fine, slender thread, or threadlike substance; as, a fiber of spun glass; especially, one of the slender rootlets of a plant.

3.

Sinew; strength; toughness; as, a man of real fiber.

Yet had no fibers in him, nor no force. Chapman.

4.

A general name for the raw material, such as cotton, flax, hemp, etc., used in textile manufactures.

Fiber gun, a kind of steam gun for converting, wood, straw, etc., into fiber. The material is shut up in the gun with steam, air, or gas at a very high pressure which is afterward relieved suddenly by letting a lid at the muzzle fly open, when the rapid expansion separates the fibers. -- Fiber plants Bot., plants capable of yielding fiber useful in the arts, as hemp, flax, ramie, agave, etc.

© Webster 1913.