Daily Fiber
A Quick Guide to Daily Fiber
Daily fiber has become an important part of a healthy diet. Nutritionists and health professionals recommend that women eat 20-25 grams of daily fiber and that men eat 30-35 grams per day. Fiber is what enables food to move through the intestine. Because our bodies don’t digest fiber, it absorbs water which makes stools soft so that they are able to pass out of the body more easily. It is necessary to drink lots of water when you start taking in more daily fiber.
Two types of fiber exist in the body--soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. The fiber that moves what we eat through the intestine is insoluble fiber. It eliminates constipation and can be found in such foods as bran cereal, brown rice, fruits and vegetables. Soluble fiber, on the other hand, is able to be absorbed in water. It forms a type of gel that binds to cholesterol and carries it out of the body. Soluble fiber also is what helps diabetics by slowing down the speed the body uses to absorb sugars. Foods with soluble fibers include apples, strawberries, citrus fruits, oat bran, oatmeal, psyllium seed and flaxseeds.
Daily fiber can protect you from several diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and bowel problems. A lot of people suffer from chronic constipation which can ultimately lead to hemorrhoids, anal fissures, diverticulitis, colon cancer and other diseases. Often these people have had constipation since childhood and don’t realize that an adequate amount of daily fiber can prevent these conditions from happening. Adding daily fiber to your diet can not only prevent but help treat some of these conditions.
Everyone should have one or two bowel movements every day. Healthy stools are soft and float--they pass quickly and easily. Most Americans do not have these sort of healthy movements but this can change by increasing the amount of fiber in their diets. Water also needs to be increased to the amount of eight to ten large glasses each day. If you eat lots of foods made from white, processed flour, white rice or pasta, and daily meats, you are not getting enough daily fiber.
One of the best places to start to improve your daily fiber intake is to begin to write down what you ate for each meal and its fiber content. Once you become familiar with the fiber content of the foods you eat, you can then determine how much more you need to add. For people who just can’t seem to add daily fiber, fiber substitutes such as Metamucil ™ or Citrucel™ are adequate replacements.
People who eat too little daily fiber will often use laxatives to get rid of constipation. If this is done throughout life, as you age, your colon can literally stop emptying on its own. Instead of laxatives, daily fiber is what will solve the problem. Increase the amount you eat of bran and oat cereals, beans, peas, lima beans, broccoli, whole grain breads and pastas, lentils, bananas, apples, nuts and other high-fiber foods.