Lord Fiber

Have you ever been so excited about sharing something that you have to hold yourself back from just blurting it out? Don’t laugh at me, but that is how I feel about the health benefits of eating fiber. You know I promised to give you information about nutrition in small, manageable bites because let’s face it, you’re busy. So if I tell you 10 great things about fiber right now, you might be able to almost, maybe, partway remember one. Let’s make it a story with characters so that you can think I am ridiculous, but maybe it will be like duct tape for your memory.

Fiber is definitely the hero. No, he’s the creator of his own digestion universe and has been kicked out. Without him there is chaos and suffering unimaginable. I picture something like a Rambo scarecrow wielding a pitchfork of, well fiber. (Yeah, roll your eyes, but you have a picture in your mind now.) Where has he been kicked out? Well, he never was in the animal kingdom, but he ruled with unsurpassed authority in every other living thing, meaning the plants. Apples, pinto beans, wheat, you’ve got it, plants.

Now donuts, bread, pasta, our diets…all live without him quite happily for the moment. The unfortunate truth is that he is so indispensible to life that all he has to do is sit back and wait for his subjects to come crawling on their knees begging for him to return. Ok, now you are ready to hear one thing that he does for us and I bet you won’t forget.

Type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Twenty- four million already have it, and 57 million are close behind in a pre-diabetic state.. “In fact, the number of adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has more than quadrupled since the early 1980s.” (1) What we eat is converted into blood sugar and sent into the bloodstream for energy. Grains with their fiber stripped away convert very quickly and this is stressful to your insulin producing system, while grains with fiber take control and slow the whole conversion process down. One study shows that people eating the most servings of whole grains a day have a 27% less chance of getting type 2 diabetes. (2) That’s good enough for me!

Have you been neglecting fiber in whole grains? Switch to whole grain bread, cereal, rice, and pasta quick. Eat humble pie and invite him back to save your health.

To your health,

Molly
Researcher and Test Cook for Orange Tree Lane

For further research when you have time:

(1) http://www.health.harvard.edu/special_health_reports/Diabetes
(2) http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20070515/fiber-may-fight-diabetes