Too Much Fiber
What It Means To Be Eating Too Much Fiber
There are many advantages to adding fiber to your diet, but caution should also be used because adding too much fiber can cause problems. Fiber is one area where you can get too much of a good thing. Fiber has been proven effective in helping people with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and other digestive disorders. The recommended amount of fiber is 30-35 grams each day for men, and 20-25 grams for women.
Because most Americans eat way too little fiber, 10 grams or under, eating too much fiber has not often been a problem. But today health professionals are seeing more and more people who are overdoing it with fiber. One of the reasons is that fiber is routinely being added to cereals and many other products in such quantities that having more than one serving each day or having one serving of several different foods can put you over the top in terms of fiber consumption.
An example is the popular cereal Fiber One™. It is an excellent source of dietary fiber--one serving has 14.2 grams. What you need to look at closely with this and other high fiber cereals is that one serving is half a cup. So, if you have the cup of cereal most people do at breakfast, you will have already supplied your body with 28.4 grams of fiber. That is as much as women need to eat in a whole day.
If you have a granola bar as a snack, or even a banana, apple, or orange, you could be adding up to another 4 grams of fiber. Soups, such as lentil can have a large amount of fiber as can whole wheat pasta or the whole wheat bread in the sandwich you had for lunch. For many people who are trying to eat natural and healthy diets, the fiber content in whole grain breads and green, leafy vegetables can start to add up quickly.
Most health professionals define “too much fiber” as being anything in excess of 50 grams every day. For the most part, your body can handle daily fiber intake of 20 to 40 grams with no problems. However, if you are just beginning to increase fiber in your diet, do it slowly. Don’t think you can go from 10 grams of fiber a day to 30 without having some nasty problems. It is best to add fiber in 4-5 gram increments so the body doesn’t overdose on fiber.
If you increase your fiber intake too quickly or start to eat more than 50 grams of fiber every day, the first side effects you are going to have are of the gastrointestinal variety--gas, cramps, and severe diarrhea. Prolonged intake of excesses of fiber can start to hinder your body’s absorption of vitamins and lead to illness. You will also experience excessive bloating to the point that it can become painful.
One thing that many people forget when they start eating more fiber is that they must start drinking more water as well. Too much fiber and too little water can lead to all types of intestinal problems. The best advice is to keep your fiber intake under 40 grams and drink lots of water.