I wanted to share with you all a huge nutrient in our diet, that is often times missed, but can have a HUGE impact.

I’m talking about Fiber.

We all know that fiber is good for you…Say if your constipated, ect. just take more fiber right?  The awesome Metamusal from the commercials.  Well, first off, that stuff is terrible, and laden with chemicals.  But secondly, fiber is extremely important for so many things other than just constipation.

The fiber intake we have as Americans is very very limited.  The FDA recommends 30g fiber per day for women and 40g of fiber per day for men.

What is the average intake for woman?  10-12g per day, and 15g for men.  Not doing good.  So we are really deficient in fiber.  And the benefits of fiber are tremendous, so we want to make sure we get enough fiber in the diet.

There’s two types of fiber.  Insoluble and soluble.  Insoluble fiber is a fiber that does not break down or dissolve in water.  If you think of the strings on a piece of celery, they are hard to chew.  Those are insoluble fibers and they don’t break down. The nice thing is, is when they hit the stomach into the large intestine, that type of fiber acts as a scrub brush, its a cleanser for the large intestine, it helps to clean debri and walls so that we don’t develop pockets (diverticuli or polyups) that can grow and help to collect unwanted food and bacteria. We don’t want that.  This fiber helps to keep the colon clean.

Soluble fiber dissolves in water.  It’s beneficial to what you’re eating, and helps to feed some of the beneficial bacteria that are in your intestinal tract.

All kinds of fiber are found in fruits and veggies. Nuts are high in fiber,  but there’s not much in meat or fat.

This is a list of foods with high fiber.  Pick the things that you like off the list and include them into your diet with a protein, fat carb(fruit, veggie) plan you’ve heard me say a million times.

Beans

Lima beans, cooked 1 cup 14 g
Black beans, cooked 1 cup 15 g
Garbanzo beans, cooked 1 cup 12 g
Lentils, cooked 1 cup 16 g
Kidney beans, cooked 1 cup 16 g
Navy beans, cooked 1 cup 19 g
White beans, small, cooked 1 cup 19 g
Green beans, cooked 1 cup 17 g
Pinto beans, cooked 1 cup 15 g

Berries

Raspberries, raw 1 cup 8 g
Blueberries, raw 1 cup 4 g
Currants (red and white), raw 1 cup 5 g
Strawberries, raw 1 cup 3 g
Boysenberries, frozen 1 cup 7 g
Blackberries, raw 1 cup 8 g

Vegetables

Asparagus, cooked 1/2 cup 2 g
Beets 3 small 4 g
Carrots, raw 1/4 cup 2 g
Celery, raw 1/4 cup 2 g
Mushrooms, raw 6 small 2 g

Cow peas (Black-eyed), cooked 1 cup 11 g
Peas, split, cooked 1 cup 16 g
Peas, green, frozen 1 cup 14 g
Peas (edible podded), cooked 1 cup 5 g

Greens

Turnip greens, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Mustard greens, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Collard greens, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Spinach, cooked 1 cup 4 g
Spinach, raw 1 cup 4 g
Lettuce, shredded 1 cup 1 g
Swiss chard, cooked 1 cup 4 g
Spring salad mix 1 cup 1 g

Nuts & Seeds

Almonds 1 ounce 4 g
Pistachio nuts 1 ounce 3 g
Cashews 1 ounce 1 g
Chia 1 ounce 10 g
Walnuts 1 ounce 2 g
Brazil nuts 1 ounce 2 g
Pinon nuts (Pine nuts) 1 ounce 12 g
Sunflower seeds 1/4 cup 3 g
Pumpkin seeds 1/2 cup 3 g
Sesame seeds 1/4 cup 4 g
Flaxseed 1 ounce 8 g

Squash

Crookneck squash, cooked 1 cup 3 g
Summer squash, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Zucchini squash, cooked 1 cup 6 g
Acorn squash, cooked 1 cup 9 g
Spaghetti squash, cooked 1 cup 2 g

Cruciferous

Kale, cooked 1 cup 3 g
Cauliflower, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Cabbage, raw 1 cup 3 g
Savoy cabbage, cooked 1 cup 4 g
Broccoli, cooked 1 cup 5 g
Brussels sprouts, cooked 1 cup 6 g
Red cabbage, cooked 1 cup 4 g

Potatoes

Red potato, flesh and skin 1 medium 3 g
Sweet potato, flesh and skin 1 medium 5 g
Yam, flesh and skin 1 medium 5 g

Fruits

Banana 1 medium 3 g

Pear 1 medium 6 g
Orange 1 medium 4 g
Apple 1 medium 4 g
Prunes, dried 1/2 cup 6 g
Raisins 2 ounces 2 g
Grapes 20 grapes 1 g
Peach 1 medium 3 g
Figs, dried 1/2 cup 8 g
Mango 1 medium 5 g
Kiwi 1 medium 2 g
Papaya 1 medium 3 g
Pineapple 1/2 cup 1 g
Guava 1 medium 3 g
Blueberries 1/2 cup 2 g
Watermelon 1 thick slice 3 g
Avocado 1 medium 3 g
Coconut, unsweetened 1 tablespoon 4 g

So…. The bacteria in your gut, they NEED fiber.  When your diet is devoid in fiber, the bacteria that thrive on it, actually begin to diminish.  When this happens you lose out on the benefits they provide.  The bacteria that live in the large intestine love it when you eat high fiber foods.  If you’ve gone from a diet thats been low in fiber, Like say you’re eating.. processed foods, refined breads, not much fruit and veggies, and you add that fiber in, you will feel BLOATED.  Thats not because you can’t have fiber necessarily, but it might be just because you need to start more slowly, so that the bacteria have time to catch up with your new change of diet.

When you don’t eat high fiber foods for your bacteria, they go after and start eating up the mucosal lining in the digestive tract, which is your protection!  When you lose that protection, it’s a set up for leaky gut and other intestinal dysfunctions. 

If you do end up with severe bloating with pain, while eating fiber, this might be an indication for displaced bacteria, like in the wrong part of your intestines. You might need a little bit more support before you add in that fiber.  Sometimes you need to kill the bad bacterias/parasites, ect. that can be hiding before adding fiber as well.

Here are 8 HUGE benefits to having adequate fiber in your diet.  

1. Helps to slow down the breakdown and the absorption of glucose in your bloodstream. Glucose turns the food you eat into sugar.  Its the fuel of your body.  Fiber helps to slowdown the breakdown of that sugar so you don’t get a big spike in your insulin.  Your energy stays stable, mood, and helps to decrease the stored glucose that might want to store as fat (butt, hips,  belly, ect.)

2. Strongly correlated with heart health.  40% increase in fiber results to a drastic reduction of heart attacks and CVD risk.

3.  For every 7g of fiber you take in, it decreases your risk of stroke by 7%.

4.  It is also helpful in losing weight.  Those bacteria will feed and break down the fiber which helps to speed up your metabolism, so you can lose weight.  It makes you feel full, and stabilizes your appetite, so you’re not grazing.   The more the bacteria use the food you eat for calories, the less is stored as calories and FAT.

5. Increased fiber helps to keep the bowel toxicity down.  It keeps the bowel clean, keeps those pockets of debri from forming.

6. It helps with elimination, so that you don’t struggle as much when you go to the bathroom.  The fiber bulks up the stool so that you are more regular.  If you strain to have a bowel movement, this is where hemorrhoids or some other kind of rectal problem starts.

7. It is also great for people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).  You have to start with really slow amounts of fiber. This helps to clean and fertilize the intestine to help minimize the symptoms of IBS.

8.  It does help prevent gallstones and kidney stones from forming, because again it helps stabilize blood sugar which prevents the formation of those stones.

It’s really easy to incorporate more foods in your diet, you just have to choose what you want to incorporate in your meal.  If you like black beans, sprinkle your salad or your eggs in the morning.  You can use pine nuts on your salad, or whatever you like.  Go through that list and decide what foods YOU like.

This is a key piece as you  being to transform your diet. Of course you also need a healthy diet to begin with like a healthy organic protein, fat and carb(veggie and fruit) with every meal.