People can't break down tough plant fiber like cows or rabbits can, so we get almost no energy from it — their stomachs are built for that job, but ours aren't.

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Quantifying the varying harvest of fermentation products from the human gut microbiota

Computational/Algorithm Study

In Vitro

2025 Sep 18

The study shows that gut bacteria help people get a meaningful amount of energy from fiber in their diet, especially when they eat more plant-based foods, which goes against the idea that humans get almost no energy from fiber.

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Similar Assertions

Humans can't digest plant fiber like cows do—we don't have the right enzymes. Instead, our gut bacteria do a little bit of breaking it down, which suggests our ancestors relied more on meat than plants for energy.

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