Experts Say ‘Fibermaxxing’ Could Improve Your Lifespan
This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.Experts Say ‘Fibermaxxing’ Could Improve Your Lifespan
Katie BerohnThu, April 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
0
Is Fiber the Real Secret to Longevity?knape - Getty Images
"Hearst Magazines and AOL may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Maybe you think about it. Maybe you don’t. But the word “longevity” is everywhere, appearing on your skin care bottles, at your gym, and even on the labels for your dog’s food. Welcome to The Long Game, a series exploring longevity today and what it means to live better.
Fiber is rather unsexy. When you think of it, you may think of your mother’s Metamucil or your father’s Raisin Bran (they work, but are slightly boring—kind of like a typical marriage). Now there’s Fiber Daddy, an influencer who looks like he belongs in line for the latest Kith pop-up, but is the founder of Liquid Salad, a brand that gives you eight grams of fiber in baby food-like pouches. He once posted a video proclaiming that “you’re too hot to lose to colon cancer.” TikTokers are also “fibermaxxing,” looksmaxxing’s much less problematic cousin, aiming to eat more than the doctor-recommended amount of 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day. Even celebrities are starting to get in on the movement (no pun intended). On the 2025 Emmys red carpet, Justine Lupe revealed that her Nobody Wants This co-star Kristen Bell was “obsessed with biohacking in a way that I don’t know if anyone else has been as obsessed with biohacking” and that one of her secrets was fiber before a carb-heavy meal.
But why did we forget about fiber in the first place? The nutrient is the nondigestible part of a carbohydrate. Most carbohydrates break down into glucose to be used for energy, but fiber goes through our digestive system intact, which aids gut health (the ideal functioning of your digestive system) and keeps bowel movements regular (even more so than Activia yogurt, sorry Jamie Lee Curtis). There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber, in foods like oat bran, barley, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, peas, some fruits and vegetables, and psyllium, dissolves into a gel in water, which slows digestion. Insoluble fiber, which is in wheat bran, some vegetables, and whole grains, acts as a bulking agent for stool. For healthy digestion, we need both kinds.
Beyond gut health, fiber may be one of the most important tools in our longevity toolkit. “For every 10 additional grams of dietary fiber you consume daily, it lowers your risk of dying for any reason by 10 percent,” says Matt Amicucci, PhD, co-founder of One.Bio, a biotech company that works on reintroducing fiber that has been removed from our modern diets through ultra-processing. It’s a lofty claim—and though eating more fiber won’t lessen your chances of getting hit by a car, a 2025 meta-analysis in the American Journal of Epidemiology confirms this statement to be true. A 2019 study in The Lancet found that people who regularly ate 25 to 29 grams of fiber per day weighed less and had lower blood pressure, blood sugars, and cholesterol.
“Fiber acts like a scrubbing agent for cholesterol,” says Lisa Ganjhu, DO, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health. “It binds to extra cholesterol that’s in the digestive tract, and by doing so, it reduces cardiovascular disease [risk] by lowering cholesterol.” This can help prevent heart disease, strokes, and more. Fiber can also help lower blood sugar, which can reduce spikes. Ganjhu uses the analogy of drinking orange juice instead of eating an orange—the fiber in a whole orange helps slow down jumps in blood sugar. “The conversion from fructose to glucose is a little bit slower because of the fiber and thereby lowers the risk of diabetes.”
Advertisement
It’s not a coincidence that most Americans only eat somewhere between 10 and 15 grams of fiber per day—well below the recommended amount—thanks to ultra-processed foods. From 2021 to 2023, the CDC found that for most adults, more than 50 percent of their daily caloric intake came from ultra-processed foods, which are nutrient-poor, high-calorie, high-sodium, and notoriously low in fiber.
Fiber also plays a major role in cancer prevention, particularly in colon cancer, which is on the rise in young Americans. In fact, new research shows that one in five diagnoses happen under the age of 55, and that colon cancer is now a leading cause of cancer-related death in young people (notably, James Van Der Beek died earlier this year of the disease at just 48). But more fiber can help mitigate this stat. “Fiber gets fermented in the colon, and it produces these compounds called short-chain fatty acids,” says Aoife O’Flaherty, MS, RD, registered dietitian at Allara Health. “These short-chain fatty acids basically serve as fuel for the cells of our colon and are very protective against colon cancer.” Fiber may also play a crucial role in preventing breast cancer. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health confirmed in a study that women who consumed more fiber were nearly 10 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who didn’t. Researchers think that this may be because fiber decreases estrogen levels and stabilizes blood sugar, both factors that have links to breast cancer.
Most Americans only eat somewhere between 10 and 15 grams of fiber per day, which is below the recommended amount.Maria Korneeva - Getty Images
On a less serious note, fiber can also help improve skin health. One 2024 study in the European Journal of Nutrition showed that eating more fiber can lower the risk of getting atopic dermatitis. Another one from 2023 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology found that the nutrient can also improve wound healing and scar formation. “Our skin and our GI [gastrointestinal] tract work very closely together, because a lot of the inflammatory markers are the same,” says Ganjhu. “If there’s inflammation inside the gut, it’s on the skin as well. By having more fiber, you’re helping with your microbiome, which theoretically may relieve some skin inflammatory processes.”
Luckily, getting your daily fiber has never been easier. Of course, the best source of fiber is from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, but there are plenty of new ways to add fiber into your diet, à la the protein push of 2025. One.Bio makes a fiber-filled chocolate shake. Share Original Fermented Green Plum Japanese Apricots have gone viral for their gut health-boosting properties. Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme has fiber supplements. Jeni Britton of Jeni’s Ice Cream fame ditched sweet treats for fiber bars with her new brand, Floura. Some of these are technically processed foods—which don’t have the same benefits as whole fiber sources—but for those who struggle to meet their fiber goals, they can be a helpful stopgap. And TikTokers have found other creative ways to get more fiber into their diets by adding chia seeds to everything, loading up on high-fiber fruits like raspberries, and adding fiber powders into baked goods. As someone with chronic digestive issues, I’ve been fibermaxxing before it was cool to do so or had a name—I scoop two tablespoons of psyllium husk into a glass of water every morning, and drink it as fast as I can (because, crucially, it is disgusting) after eating a bowl of chia pudding that I mash a banana into. And yes, it’s changed my life for the better.
But there is such a thing as too much fiber, so it’s important to be mindful, even if you’re fibermaxxing. “Having too much of it can also cause issues, like more bloating, gas, and cramping,” says Ganjhu. “Because of the nature of bulking, sometimes people have more stools, or they can have some diarrhea.” That’s why when you’re trying to up your fiber intake, O’Flaherty and Ganjhu both recommend taking it slow. Don’t go from eating zero grams to 35 grams—start by adding in a few servings of fiber-rich foods like vegetables or whole grains and keep titrating up from there.
“Longevity” has become synonymous with interventions like peptide injections, stem cell treatments, and hyperbaric oxygen chambers. But maybe it can be simpler—and it might start with bean salads and chia seed puddings.
You Might Also Like
Here’s What 40 Celebrities Looked Like as Teenagers
Is Collagen Banking the Answer to Younger-Looking Skin?
Trust Us—These Editor-Approved Fragrances Will Have You Smelling Like a Dream
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
