Fiber
Up for Energy and Health
By Danna Demetre, RN
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If
it were so difficult to eat and live healthfully, I really believe
God would have given us a “user’s manual”.
Do you think the nomads stopped at each meal to calculate if
they were in some sort of “zone”? I don’t
think so. If we just got back to basics, we would simply eat
more of the foods God gave us the way he originally made them.
That would mean most of us would be eating allot more fruits,
vegetables, whole grains and nuts. And by doing so…we’d
finally get all the phytochemicals and fiber we need.
Fiber
is one of the most neglected elements of the American diet.
The average person only eats about 10 to 15 grams per day. We
need an absolute minimum of 30 grams. The best sources
are fruits, vegetables, whole grains and especially beans. As
a rule of thumb, an average serving of fruits or veggies contains
about 2 to 4 grams. That means you would need the equivalent
of 10 servings to meet your minimum fiber requirement. We really
do need 5 to 9 fruits and vegetables each day. Many cultures
with diets that are high in fiber (up to 50 or more grams per
day) have very low rates of heart disease and cancer. Fiber
is essential for good health and has been linked to the prevention
of many other diseases as well.
So
what is fiber? It is the indigestible part of plant food. There
are two kinds ~ soluble and insoluble. Think of the soluble
fiber like a sponge that soaks up fluid and excess dietary fat
as it travels through the digestive tract. Imagine the insoluble
fiber like a scrub brush cleaning up the walls of your intestines
as it travels the miles and miles of its journey.
Transit
time ~ how fast your food journeys to its final exit!
Speaking of traveling, do you know how long it takes your food
to travel from the time you eat it until its final exit? It
should be about 12 to 18 hours. That’s called your transit
time. A healthy transit time is important for general health
and weight management.
Perhaps you can recall
hearing about someone that was acutely obese and had an intestinal
resection. In this operation, the surgeon ties off a segment
of the intestines to decrease the absorption time of the food
in the digestive tract. As a result, less calories and nutrients
are absorbed. The individual must continue to eat the same volume
of food to avoid becoming malnourished.
This is an extreme
example of decreasing one’s transit time. For good health,
we don’t want it to be too fast or too slow. If our transit
time is sluggish, our food spends too much time in our digestive
tract. Every single calorie is absorbed along with other toxins
and unfavorable substances in our food.
I once heard a slow
transit time compared with a big bowl of potato salad sitting
in the sun on a picnic table. It builds up bacteria, has time
to spoil, and loses its nutritional value. Ideally, we want
a transit time that is healthy for adequate absorption of calories
and other nutrients without undue exposure to the toxins in
our foods like pesticides and additives. Soluble fiber does
a great job attaching to dietary fat and carrying some of it
out of the body.
A
“corny” way to check your transit time!
So, how do you test your transit time? It’s very, very
simple…eat some corn, look at your watch… Now, watch
for the corn and look at your watch when it arrives! That’s
your transit time!
Fiber is not just
for regularity. There is an important reason that it helps notch
up your energy; it slows the release of carbohydrates into your
bloodstream in the form of sugar. Let me give you an example.
If you drink a glass of apple juice, the fructose (or natural
fruit sugar) in the juice would quickly move into your blood
stream and your blood sugar would rise. That would give you
an immediate boost of energy. But, the downside is that it also
falls as quickly as it rose. Within a short period of time your
energy is waning.
However, if you ate
an apple instead of apple juice, the high fiber content in the
apple slows down the release of the fruit sugars and your blood
sugar rises more slowly and holds. Stabilize your blood sugar
throughout the day by including fiber in every meal or snack.
You will be amazed at energy level over time. You will probably
have less sugar cravings also.
Fiber
up all day long
Read the labels on cereals, breads and grains. Some of our favorite
diet foods like white rice and pasta have little or no fiber.
With breads and grains, remember, “brown is better”.
And that doesn’t mean that chocolate cake is better than
white! Find creative ways to add more fiber into every meal
and snack and you’ll be delighted at the increase in your
energy, the decrease in your appetite and the wonderful health
benefits that will come. Now, go eat an apple.
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