# Fiber or Fibre or Fiber **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiber-or-fibre-or-fiber/344949 "2006-02-17T15:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiber-or-fibre-or-fiber/344949/1 "2006-02-17T15:39:11Z")
Why is ditary Fiber/Fibre NOT fiber? [PeaFiber/Fibre](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=359278) Don’t the terms seem to be contradictory? What do you think of when the term fiber is used? A long skinny string like something? Or a powderlike material? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiber-or-fibre-or-fiber/344949/2 "2006-02-17T16:07:25Z")
There are several kinds of dietary fiber, the most important distinction being [soluble and insoluble](http://www.healthcastle.com/fiber-solubleinsoluble.shtml) fibers. Fiber is always digested into tiny pieces in the digestive system. It can be ground ahead of time, and from huge numbers of different plant source. It is never useful as long stringy strings. What contradiction are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiber-or-fibre-or-fiber/344949/3 "2006-02-17T18:54:49Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > Why is ditary Fiber/Fibre NOT fiber? It’s “fiber” when the preimages of every point in the base space are homeomorphic, “fibre” in general. WHAAAT?