Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 18 June 2018

Fiber optics? Range of ingredients bulk up food fiber counts

By CANDICE CHOI Bosch, founder of Smart cium absorption.
NEW YORK (AP) — Are the Sweets, also welcomed the "That's the problem — the
fiber counts for foods get- FDA's guidance and said label will just say it's high fi-
ting bloated? Smart Sweets gummy bears ber," Liebman says.
Browse supermarket are a way people can "feel Naturally occurring fibers
shelves, and it's easy to good about enjoying can- within food, such as the fi-
find ice cream, yogurt and dy." Not everyone is happy ber that might come from
brownies with impressive fi- about the decision. grains or fruit chunks, do
ber totals. That's because The advocacy group Cen- not need approval. Ingre-
companies add ingredi- ter for Science in the Pub- dients need clearance if
ents to boost the fiber, a lic Interest says added they have been isolated
practice they say helps fibers can fuel the confu- and extracted from their
people enjoy treats with sion about what's healthy original source, or made
less guilt but that critics say and what's not. The group synthetically.
distorts ideas about what's says that creates situations So far, the FDA has signed
healthy. where a brownie might off on 15 such ingredients.
A Fiber One brownie, for in- have more fiber than a The eight approved this
stance, has 90 calories and peach — and sway people week include polydextrose,
5 grams of fiber. It's even into picking the brownie. resistant maltodextrin and
possible to get a whole In this Thursday, June 14, 2018, photo, a box of oatmeal shows Another complication: The mixed plant cell walls, a
day's worth of fiber by eat- part of the dietary description in Zelienople, Pa. approved health benefit category that includes mul-
ing candy; a small bag may not be what people tiple ingredients like apple
of Smart Sweets gummy agency's blessing comes it gave the green light for expect from fiber, says Bon- fiber. Those are in addition
bears has 90 calories and after a 2016 rule said add- eight ingredients to keep nie Liebman, director of nu- to the seven the agency
28 grams of fiber. ed fibers need to provide a being counted as fiber. trition at CSPI. previously approved, in-
Now, the U.S. Food and health benefit, rather than The agency says more fi- Inulin, which is often taken cluding cellulose, guar
Drug Administration is giv- just being a non-digestible bers may be recognized from chicory root, is among gum and psyllium husk.
ing its nod for many of the carbohydrate. in the future, and that it re- the ingredients approved The new standard for fiber
ingredients that compa- Since then, the FDA has jected two petitions for an to be counted as fiber. is part of the revamped Nu-
nies already use to pump been reviewing scientific ingredient. And even though people trition Facts panel, which
up fiber to be counted as evidence submitted by General Mills Inc., which might assume that fiber's makes it easier to see calo-
such on the new Nutrition companies showing the makes Fiber One, said in a benefit is digestive regular- rie counts and the added
Facts panel, which will be health benefits of various statement it's pleased with ity or feeling full, the proven sugar in products. It will be
required in two years. The ingredients. On Thursday, the FDA's decision. Tara health benefit was for cal- required starting in 2020.q

Many animals are shifting from

day to night to avoid people

many mammals may travel the woods, but our mere presence triggered an in-
to remote areas or move presence can have lasting crease of about 20 percent
around less to avoid con- consequences." in nighttime activity, even
tact with people. Gaynor and her colleagues in animals that aren't night
The latest research found analyzed 76 studies involv- owls.
even activities like hiking ing 62 species on six con- Results were published
and camping can scare tinents. Animals included Thursday in the journal Sci-
animals and drive them to lions in Tanzania, otters in ence.
become more active at Brazil, coyotes in California, The findings are novel be-
In this Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003 file photo, a coyote wanders through night. wild boars in Poland and ti- cause "no one else has
a neighborhood in Cedar Glen, Calif., in the San Bernardino
Mountains. "It suggests that animals gers in Nepal. compiled all this informa-
Associated Press might be playing it safe Researchers compared tion and analyzed it in such
around people," said Kai- how much time those crea- a ... robust way," said Ana
By EMILIANO RODRIGUEZ study says. tlyn Gaynor, an ecologist tures spent active at night Benitez Lopez of Radboud
MEGA Scientists have long known at the University of Cali- under different types of University in the Nether-
NEW YORK (AP) — Lions that human activity disrupts fornia, Berkeley, who led human disturbance such lands, who reviewed the
and tigers and bears are in- nature. Besides becoming the study. "We may think as hunting, hiking and study.
creasingly becoming night more vigilant and reducing that we leave no trace farming. On average, the Marlee Tucker, an ecologist
owls because of us, a new time spent looking for food, when we're just hiking in team found that human at Goethe University Frank-
furt in Germany who was
not part of the research,
was surprised that any kind
of human activity is enough
for mammals to see people
as a threat.
"It's a little bit scary," she
said. "Even if people think
that we're not deliberately
trying to impact animals,
we probably are without
knowing it."q