Based on this random fact I honestly would invite you to my party (if I’d host any parties at all). Why would anyone think that you’re not fun at parties?
Unfortunately, the people who would invite someone to a party based on their knowledge of obscure facts and the people who throw parties are not usually the same people.
I’m just joking around with some self-deprecating humor to diffuse the pedantic nature of my comment, but I appreciate your sincere response. The people in your life are lucky to have you.
Fiber is healthy for us because we can’t digest it, so it bulks up our food without adding calories, and provides nutrients to our gut bacteria
Cows have an organ called a rumen that breaks down cellulose into carbohydrates, so they get way more calories from grass than we would. Surprisingly enough, though, horses also can’t digest fiber. Which is why I’ve always found it odd that they eat grass
Both cows, horses and even to a limited extent humans can digest fiber. Cows digest fiber in the rumen where it actually turns mostly into organic acids which the cow can oxidize while the anaerobic rumen bacteria cannot. Interestingly the same thing happens in the large intestine in other mammals. For humans the large intestine is quite small and food moves through there too quickly for much fiber to be properly digested. However the easiest digestible fiber, soluble fiber, actually mostly breaks down even in a human’s large intestine and yields us approximately 2 calories per gram of soluble fiber. For insoluble fiber this amount is extremely low since there is not enough fermentation taking place for it to be completely broken down. However for mammals with a much larger large intestine where food passes much slower, even the harder to digest fibers can be utilized to a large degree.
Horses belong to this category and are called hindgut fermenters. Other examples may surprise you like gorillas and orangutans who have incredibly huge large intestines. That’s why those apes can eat leaves all day and is an explanation why their stomachs are huge without them being filled with fat, it’s all intestines.
However a weakness with hindgut fermentation is that the large intestine can only extract solubles from the microbial mass which leaves out a lot of nutrients. A cow can extract those same organic acids from the fermentation but since the rumen is first in their digestive system the whole microbial mass enters their “ordinary” digestive system which means that they can digest the actual bacteria as well, meaning they manage to extract a bunch of extra microbial proteins that hindgut fermenters may miss. The benefit to hindgut fermentation is however that the first shot at digesting the food is given to the animal itself. A horse can digest starch just as well as a human could but a cow suffers considerable losses in starch digestion since the bacteria gets first gibs, turning the starch to organic acids instead of getting broken down into simple sugars directly, which is more efficient. So in short a cow and horse can both digest fiber. However their digestive systems have significant tradeoffs and one is not necessarily better than the other.
The cow, unlike the horse, is a ruminant, and is therefore able to digest fibrous material more efficiently.
If you enjoyed this comment, please invite me to a party. I swear I will be fun this time.
I enjoyed it, but as for inviting you… Let me ruminate on that.
Quit horsin’ around and make a decision, coward!
Don’t have a cow, man!
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Based on this random fact I honestly would invite you to my party (if I’d host any parties at all). Why would anyone think that you’re not fun at parties?
Unfortunately, the people who would invite someone to a party based on their knowledge of obscure facts and the people who throw parties are not usually the same people.
That is very truly unfortunate.
Be a part of the change that you would like to see in the world?
Or maybe not, I dunno. 🤪
I’m just joking around with some self-deprecating humor to diffuse the pedantic nature of my comment, but I appreciate your sincere response. The people in your life are lucky to have you.
And you in yours. If I heard that you were going to a party that I got roped into, I’d actually be excited to show up.
If you agree to wear that notorious horse mask, and take at least one shot through it, you’re invited.
Also you just have to always say ‘neigh’ instead of ‘no’, if you fuck that up, another shot.
(we can do half shots if you’re not a heavy drinker, you can lead a horse to water but forcing it to black out is unethical)
damn i wish somebody talked to me that way
Joke’s on you, the only people at parties that I want to talk to are fellow nerds who spout random facts.
Therefore making him fatter? Isn’t fiber supposed to be healthy?
Fiber is healthy for us because we can’t digest it, so it bulks up our food without adding calories, and provides nutrients to our gut bacteria
Cows have an organ called a rumen that breaks down cellulose into carbohydrates, so they get way more calories from grass than we would. Surprisingly enough, though, horses also can’t digest fiber. Which is why I’ve always found it odd that they eat grass
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Both cows, horses and even to a limited extent humans can digest fiber. Cows digest fiber in the rumen where it actually turns mostly into organic acids which the cow can oxidize while the anaerobic rumen bacteria cannot. Interestingly the same thing happens in the large intestine in other mammals. For humans the large intestine is quite small and food moves through there too quickly for much fiber to be properly digested. However the easiest digestible fiber, soluble fiber, actually mostly breaks down even in a human’s large intestine and yields us approximately 2 calories per gram of soluble fiber. For insoluble fiber this amount is extremely low since there is not enough fermentation taking place for it to be completely broken down. However for mammals with a much larger large intestine where food passes much slower, even the harder to digest fibers can be utilized to a large degree.
Horses belong to this category and are called hindgut fermenters. Other examples may surprise you like gorillas and orangutans who have incredibly huge large intestines. That’s why those apes can eat leaves all day and is an explanation why their stomachs are huge without them being filled with fat, it’s all intestines.
However a weakness with hindgut fermentation is that the large intestine can only extract solubles from the microbial mass which leaves out a lot of nutrients. A cow can extract those same organic acids from the fermentation but since the rumen is first in their digestive system the whole microbial mass enters their “ordinary” digestive system which means that they can digest the actual bacteria as well, meaning they manage to extract a bunch of extra microbial proteins that hindgut fermenters may miss. The benefit to hindgut fermentation is however that the first shot at digesting the food is given to the animal itself. A horse can digest starch just as well as a human could but a cow suffers considerable losses in starch digestion since the bacteria gets first gibs, turning the starch to organic acids instead of getting broken down into simple sugars directly, which is more efficient. So in short a cow and horse can both digest fiber. However their digestive systems have significant tradeoffs and one is not necessarily better than the other.
This is so much more than I expected to learn about fiber today.
Thank you for random facts, that was kinda interesting to read and learn.
wow what a nice explanation. thank you.