Eat More Fiber!
Fiber is often in the shadows of macros/micros, but we need it daily to support our immunity, stabilize our blood sugar, and keep us satiated throughout our day.
At a glance: A day of fiber
Swap your pressed juice for a veggie smoothie. Add 1/2 avocado (7grams), 2 tbsp flax (4grams), or chia seeds (9.8grams) to start to jump the day in fiber. Aim for 12grams in total.
Snack on whole fruit. One large pear with skin has 7 grams with 1 ounce of almonds (3.5 grams). Aim for 7 to 8 grams.
At lunch, eat a cup of sautéed greens like kale (5.2 grams)
For dinner, incorporate lentils into your meal, or enjoy this Salmon Lenitl Salad. with 1 cup lentils (15.6 grams), Bringing your total up to 40 plus grams! You did it. It feels good.
Start slowly
Switching abruptly to a high-fiber diet can cause gas and bloat. Instead, increase slowly and challenge yourself to 50 grams a day.
Not all fiber is the same. When people think of fiber, they think of reaching for a bran muffin, but there is more to it.
Vegetables and whole fruit, for example, diversify our gut flora with good soluble and insoluble fiber, feeding and populating the good microbes inhabiting different species that are symbiotic to us. In addition, the microbes in our gut are tiny factories manufacturing by-products (short-chain fatty acids like butyric acid and Vitamin K) that are good for you!
Dietary fiber, or roughage or bulk, includes the parts of plant foods your body can’t digest or absorb. Unlike other food components, such as fats, proteins, or carbohydrates — which your body breaks down and absorbs — your body doesn’t digest fiber. Instead, it passes relatively intact through your stomach, small intestine, and colon and out of your body.
Insoluble fiber
Lentils, most whole grains, cauliflower, beans, and vegetables like okra and corn are typical examples of insoluble fiber. This type of fiber promotes the movement of material through your digestive system. In addition, it increases stool bulk, benefiting those who struggle with constipation or irregular stools. The essential play is soluble fiber, found in almost all other plant foods.
Soluble fiber
Beans, vegetables, sweet potato, flax and chia seeds, pears, and psyllium husk are a few examples of soluble fiber. This type of fiber dissolves in water, or is hydrophilic, meaning it attracts and holds water, and this gel expansion makes you complete. These foods slow down the absorption of carbs in your body, so you don’t have peaks in your blood sugar. The bacteria in your gut metabolize soluble fiber from fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and most whole grains.
This leads to lower cholesterol, blood sugar, and insulin; cancer prevention; balanced hormone levels, removing excess estrogen and reducing the risk of breast cancer; vital vitamins and minerals; food production for colon cells; and much more.
Fiber supplements
Hello Palate recommends a food-first approach before reaching for fiber supplements. Supplements can benefit you if you cannot consume fiber from whole food sources and exhaust every best possible option. The food-first approach works synergistically from the different nutrients, antioxidants, and fiber types within one real food. In addition, it’s essential to develop an awareness of foods’ energetic qualities to cook more often and have a better relationship with our eating habits.
I know this space of nutritional therapy can seem tedious, yet the state of our nutrition impacts how we relate to the world around us. How we communicate to ourselves and others and effectively approach our lives with clarity in our actions and mind-body connections depends on our eating habits.
So make sure you eat more fiber.
You can be strategic and smart about it now that you know why and how to eat more of it throughout your day.
Resources:
https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(16)31187-X/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4415970/
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/5/1155/htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5548066/
