Everyone is always looking for the latest greatest health food or supplement. But this one is right under your nose and so easy. Fiber. If you do one thing this year to improve your diet and overall health, increase your fiber: soluble, insoluble and digestive resistant starch.
Here’s why • Increased fiber reduces the risk of premature death from any cause = fact.
• It helps to manage weight or weight loss by making you fuller, it also helps to control blood sugar and slows your body’s absorption of sugar
• It’s proven to decrease insulin resistance, which is what happens during pre-Diabetes and Diabetes Type 2. You want insulin to work in your body, not be resisted.
• There is an inverse associate between fiber and heart attack, it can beneficially lower blood pressure and dietary cholesterol
• It can reduce inflammation in your intestine and colon (aka diverculitis) by 40% - thereby helping to prevent leaky gut, a trendy buzzword for the breakdown of your gut barrier.
• Psyllium husk, in particular, will help move yeast and fungus out of the body, preventing acne or various rashes and all sorts of things.
How? When you eat plant fiber, the good bacteria in your colon produce short chain fatty acids. These fatty acids are also epigenetic communicators against chronic disease. This is an elaborate way to say, fiber is essential to health. So if your thing is fresh pressed juice – also very good for you – but you’re only half way to health, you need fiber.
How much? Eat it all day. USDA says 14 gramps but ideally 25 to 50 grams per 1,000 calories consumed, and drink lots of water to avoid back-up. Ex/ 25 mg fiber = 7 cups of blueberries or 8 bananas or 3.5 cups shredded coconut or 6 oranges or 4 tbsp chia seeds.
Your best FIBER sources are:
Psyllium, Chia Seeds, Root Vegetables and Tubers, Peas and Beans, Berries, Sprouts; Cruciferous such as Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts; Mushrooms such as Maitake, Chanterelle, Shiitake, Oyster; Fermented Vegetables/Cabbage; Cold Previously Cooked Potatoes; Green Papaya; and various Seeds.
You ask – where are the grains? Well, in the past, sure, but these days cereal grains are routinely doused with glyphosate. This increases yield and kills rye grass. Thus grains are linked to celiac disease and other gut dysfunction. A high-grain diet also promotes insulin and leptin resistance, thereby raising your risk for chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. When in doubt, just eat a lot of raw veggies!
Jolly good but when is fiber a no go? If you have chronic digestive symptoms like diarrhea, flatulence, stomach pains, leaky gut syndrome, food allergies, then you’d be wise to implement the GAPS program. The first part of this program is to actually remove fiber, as it feeds microbes, and if your system is predominantly populated by pathogenic bacteria, yeast and fungi, then you need to starve them out. Your digestive system is not designed to break down fiber -- that task is performed by the microorganisms in your gut—so if your gut is filled with the bad guys, fiber can make symptoms worse. Hopefully that’s not you. Talk to me about GAPS if you have questions and use me as your health and nutrition accountability coach through my 10/10/110 Program. Prices for that go up in April.
Meantime, eat your fiber my health nuggets!! xx Shannon