Is fiber important in human nutrition? Ask anyone. Ask the internet. Ask your doctor. But then follow this up with a simple question: What exactly is it? Hmmm.

I recently came across a magazine article about fiber that included the acronym ANDFOM. Huh? What did that mean? ANDFOM: “antifoaming agent”? or “and for older men?” Then I realized what happened – some of those letters should have been in lowercase, and the magazine editor’s spell checker “corrected” them all to uppercase.

This month, we’ll talk about the new alphabet of fiber: a, pe, om and ICP. Don’t worry, you haven’t wandered into an academic spelling bee. But seriously, have you recently submitted a forage sample to a laboratory?

The phone call came in one evening last month. A grass-based dairy farmer, whom I’ve known for years, was calling – there was a problem. Three cows were down; two of them were trembling with something like spasms.