[8/8/12] Wednesday Wellness: Fiber

Consuming enough fiber every day is so important to having a healthy body. Fiber has many benefits:

Here are some helpful hints on how to get enough fiber every day:

The optimal amount for women is 25 grams and 35 grams for men. Grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables are the best options for getting the fiber you need everyday. Beware of products that have added functional fibers, as the health benefits from these types of fibers are still unproven. Here is an explanation for functional fibers:

Functional fibers are non-digestible carbohydrates that are isolated from foods.  They are not the same as dietary fiber consumed in foods like vegetables, grains and legumes.  On a food label they appear as maltodextrin, polydextrose, and cellulose.  Cellulose is a functional fiber that comes from oat hull fiber, wheat fiber, pea fiber, soy fiber and cottonseed fiber.  

The fiber is most likely safe, although there are no studies confirming this.  However, these are not the same as fiber consumed in foods.  This is important, since the studies showing the benefits of fiber for a range of conditions from lowering cholesterol to regulating blood sugar, all involved the consumption of foods with high fiber content.  There is no scientific evidence or reason to believe that functional fibers will confer the same benefit to consumers as consuming high-fiber, natural foods (Popper, Pam, N.D. "Functional Fiber." T. Colin Campbell Foundation. Full article can be found here).

It's a good idea to make sure that you're eating fiber with every meal and snack to make sure that you reach the daily recommended amount. For example, my favorite breakfast is bran flakes with a banana or berries, which gives me a nice head start to my daily fiber count. And both are pretty tasty! I can also tell pretty quickly when I'm not getting enough fiber because I feel sluggish and irregular (TMI?). So I know, personally, how important fiber is to making me feel healthy and able to do all the things I want to do. 

This has been true with my kids, too. I remember getting a phone call from both of my college kids not long after they'd left home saying that they're just not feeling right. When we talked about what they'd been eating, it quickly became apparent that they weren't eating enough fiber. After they made some simple changes to what they were eating, they felt better.

Here is a chart showing the fiber content of various foods.

Fiber is fabulous! :o)