The Importance Of Fiber

Everywhere you turn these days, you hear how important fiber is to a healthy diet. Every TV doctor or so-called health care expert tells us that we need to eat more fiber to achieve optimal health. What always confused me on the path to better health is exactly what fiber is, what it is supposed to do to help me, and what kind of fiber should we be eating more of. So I educated myself! With all this in mind, I will try and break down what fiber is so we can all understand and choose the best foods to add the right high-fiber foods to our diets to help us with our health and weight loss goals.

Fiber is basically what your mother probably called roughage. We have all probably heard that it comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Basically this is the difference: insoluble fiber passes through your system pretty much intact and soluble fiber dissolves in water (or partially dissolved) in your intestines and creates a gel-like substance. Insoluble fiber is great for your digestive system since it holds onto water and pushes everything else you eat through your intestines. Soluble fiber slows down digestion making you feel full longer so you won't be eating as much. It matters more that you eat fiber rather than worrying about what kinds of fiber you are eating. However, I think you can gather from all this that drinking more water is vital.

To increase the fiber in our diets, first understand that the food industry has long stripped the natural fiber out of grain products such as bread and pastas largely because it prolongs shelf life to do so. So to get our fiber we need to choose whole grain products such as true whole wheat breads, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice. A general good idea is to avoid as much processed foods as you can. A good example of why this is important is to compare the ingredient list of one of the instant oatmeals, particularly the microwavable kinds, with a natural rolled oatmeal. The result is truly astonishing. Some of the best high-fiber foods include:

1. Lentils

2. Baked Beans

3. Peas

4. Pears

5. Blueberries

6. Whole Wheat Pasta

7. Oatmeal (not the instant kind!)

8. Apples (with the skin)

9. Artichokes

10. Popcorn (hot-air popped is the best since you can control the fat (butter) and salt content)

Most doctors and nutrition sources recommend eating an average of 23-26 grams a day for women and 33-38 grams a day for men. One warning I will give from personal experience is to increase your fiber intake slowly. The average American person eats on average 10-15 grams of fiber a day. To double or triple that amount immediately will cause some intestinal discomfort since your body is not used to it. Another important recommendation is to significantly increase your intake of water. Water is crucial to the digestive process and particularly for the movement of fiber through the digestive tract.

In addition to weight loss, a high fiber diet also has other important health benefits. Some of these benefits are believed to include: lowering risk of heart disease, lowering cholesterol, and lowering the risk of diabetes.