High Fiber Foods for Healthy Results

High fiber foods can make you feel like a whole new person. How?

To begin with, constipation is NO fun. And high fiber foods help keep you "regular." They also remove harmful toxins from your body. But that's not all.

By eating more fiber rich fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and beans from my list of high fiber foods, you can decrease your risk of hemorrhoids, colon cancer, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood sugar, diabetes and obesity.

That's a lot of benefits for just adding more fiber to your diet.

Healthy Fiber Guidelines

Dietary Fiber is basically the skeleton of a plant. The skeleton helps plants maintain their shape. Since fiber makes you feel fuller and humans can't digest it, weight loss is an added benefit. So, fiber helps you maintain your shape too.

Consumption in this country averages around 11 grams daily. But in order to be healthy you need 24 to 38 grams of fiber a day. That's a big difference. It means increasing your intake by more than two or three times.

Studies show only about 5% of Americans get enough fiber in their diets. Because of this, over a billion dollars is spent annually on laxatives.

Health Benefits of High Fiber Foods

• Regular normal bowel movements
• Eliminates need for harmful laxatives
• Decreases hemorrhoids and colon cancer
• Lowers cholesterol and risk of heart disease
• Helps in maintaining normal healthy body weight
• Normalizes blood sugar and reduces risk of diabetes

Two types of dietary fiber

1. Insoluble fiber doesn't dissolve in water. By increasing the bulk of the stool, it helps move waste material through the colon faster. This is important for people suffering from constipation or irregularity. It's also been shown to lower blood sugar and decrease the risk of Diabetes. Insoluble fiber is found in whole grains, wheat bran, nuts and vegetables.

2. Soluble fiber absorbs water. It therefore softens stools making them easier to eliminate from the body. Some soluble fibers bind to bile acids containing cholesterol and carry them out of the body, reducing the risk of heart disease. Soluble fiber is found in fruits, vegetables and grains, such as apples, citrus fruits, oats, barley, flax seeds, psillium and beans.

Supplementation

Although supplements, such as psyllium, flaxseed and bran can help you meet your daily optimum of 24 to 38 grams, it should NOT replace good nutritious food.

Add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and beans to your diet. Then you can make up the difference with a supplement.

The payoff will be that wastes are eliminated along with the toxins from your system instead of your body reabsorbing them.

Three warnings

Drink LOTS of water. Each fiber particle absorbs water from your intestines and colon. If you don't drink enough, you could make matters worse.

Go slowly. If you're not used to eating whole grains, beans, vegetables or fruit, your body needs time to adjust. Too much too fast can cause gas and bloating.

Be patient. Don't expect results overnight. It could take several days or even weeks for your system to adjust to your new way of eating.

But, in time you'll be so happy and proud of yourself, the wait will be well worth it!

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Note: The information contained on this website is not intended to be prescriptive. Any attempt to diagnose or treat an illness should come under the direction of a physician who is familiar with nutritional therapy.