What’s Cooking with MicrobeFiber?

By Carl Weiss

Image courtesy of MicrobeFiber.com

Having used MicrobeFiber for the past three months, I was asked by Doctor White to give my impression of the product.  Since I am also a chef, I thought I would go him one better by also describing the way I use MicrobeFiber in preparing meals.

Producing an online cooking show means preparing dozens of new recipes for my audience.  It also requires me to please the crowd.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t always sit well with my tummy, as I found out the hard way midway through 2016.  That’s when I first came to find out about MicrobeFiber. I also found out that there’s a world of difference between food that tastes good and dishes that give your body problems.

Some Like it Hot

While you might like to “Kick it up a notch,” as Emeril Lagasse is fond of saying, everyone does not deal well with spicy food.  Especially when it comes to Cajun, Mexican or fiery Thai and Chinese dishes, some people find themselves running for the bathroom soon after their meal is finished.   The reason this occurs is because spicy dishes prepared with hot peppers contain capsaicin, which is an irritant.

Image courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

If you have ever bitten into a jalapeno pepper only to have your mouth start to burn and your lips turn bright red a few minutes later, then it should come as no surprise that capsaicin can also irritate your stomach lining and intestinal tract.  The fire in your belly that water can’t put out, can be tolerated by some people, while others may find themselves running for the bathroom.  (FYI: Drinking milk instead of water will help ease the burn since it contains an enzyme that counteracts the active ingredient in capsaicin.)

The reason spicy food can cause pain, bloating and/or diarrhea is due to the way that the digestive tract deals with it.  Like it or not, digestion, like cooking, is a highly orchestrated process that can easily be derailed.  Add the wrong ingredient at the wrong time and BAM, you have a problem.  When it comes to dealing with capsaicin, the stomach doesn’t break this ingredient down during digestion.  Instead, it moves food laced with capsaicin along to the intenstinal tract, in essence treating it the same way that an irritable chef does a waiter. “Here, you deal with this!”

Image courtesy of pexels.com

The way in which the intentines sometimes deal with an irritant is that they too shuttle the offending element along like a hot potato.  As a result, the process of digestion is shortcut since the bowels don’t want the irritant to linger any longer than necessary.  The results, as all too many of us know, is anything but pleasant.

Having experienced this and other digestive issues over the years, I asked the doctor if my culinary curiosity could cause harm to my digestive tract.  What he told me was that while diarrhea caused by spicy food can be uncomfortable, there is little evidence pointing to any longterm harm.  Even more surprising was learning that spicy food was not responsible for ulcers, although it can increase the pain to those who have ulcers.

There’s More to Food Than Meets the Eye

One of the other things I learned from the doctor was that there’s more to food than meets the eye.  A host of tummy troubles can be caused by eating food that doesn’t agree with you.  Comstipation can be caused by everything from not chewing your food sufficiently, to dehydration, to a lack of dietary fiber.  Some people, like me, have a heightened sensitivity to dairy products, the result of which can constipate them.  (I switched to almond milk several years ago.)  Millions of people also have issues with everything from gluten, to peanuts, soy, and shellfish.

Image courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

The most important fact I learned from the doctor was that most Americans do not ingest enough soluble fiber.  This was a shock to me, since when I cook, I only use whole foods, including lots of veggies.  The doctor showed me that even this wasn’t usually sufficient to provide the recommended 35 grams of fiber per day that men need to stay healthy.  (Women need 25 grams per day.)  To a chef, this comes as a shock.  Even more shocking was the fact that the average American gets less than half that amount.

Suddenly I had visions of trying to find even more creative ways to add greens, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, asparagus, cabbage and carrots to my entrees, not to mention apples, bananas, blueberries and raisins to my desserts.  When I shared my anxiety with the doctor, he chuckled before saying, “Or, you could simply add a powdered fiber supplement to your dishes and kill two birds with one stone.”

Then he went onto explain the benefits of MicrobeFiber.  “You can’t consume 30 grams of fiber daily with most supplements.  That’s because they contain additives and fillers.  Try it and it won’t be pretty.  MicrobeFiber not only contains no additives or fillers, it is also gluten-free, which is a big problem for some people.”

It was with much relief that I started adding MicrobeFiber to my recipes.  Instead of having to alter recipes that I have come to know and love, by adding a scoop of MicrobeFiber during the preparation phase, I was able to increase the amount of fiber without adulterating the taste or texture in any way.  What could be easier? (Those of you who have watched my latest episodes of Man Cave Munchies now know why I have started adding MicrobeFiber to my dishes.)

Guilt-Free Cookies ala Man Cave Munchies

Having been a chef all my life, it amazed me how much I could learn about food that I had previously been taking for granted.  More importantly, it also gave me an entirely new perspective on how to answer that age old question, “What’s cooking?”

Carl Weiss has been producing ManCave Munchies on YouTube since 2013.