Do you know these important facts about fiber in a healthy diet?
Zaak OConan

When it comes to eating healthy and enjoying a healthier lifestyle, it is hard to overstate the importance of fiber in the diet. Even though fiber is most associated with grains, rice and breads, it is important to remember that fruits and vegetables also contain significant amounts of dietary fiber. In fact, the need for fiber is just one more reason to eat your fruits and vegetables every day.

In order to understand why dietary fiber is so important, it is a good idea to know what fiber is and what role it plays in digestion. Simply put, dietary fiber is the portion of food that the human body cannot digest. Fiber is found in foods of plant origin only; there is no fiber in meat and dairy products. Fiber plays an important role in the digestion of food, and in the elimination of waste products as they travel through the body.

Good sources of dietary fiber include grains, cereals, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. As we said before, meats and dairy products do not contain any dietary fiber, so it is important to eat some plant based foods ever day to get the fiber you need.

Soluble vs. insoluble
Not all fiber is the same, and fiber comes in two forms – soluble and insoluble. All plant materials contain both types of fiber, but some sources contain more of one than the other. Eating a variety of foods rich in fiber every day will ensure you get adequate levels of both soluble and insoluble fiber.

Insoluble fiber is important in keeping people regular, and it has shown promise as well in the prevention of some types of colon and rectal cancers. Insoluble fiber is mainly found in wheat brain, some types of vegetables and in whole grain products. Some vegetables rich in insoluble fiber include carrots, peas and broccoli. The skins of fruits are also rich in insoluble fiber.

Soluble fiber, on the other hand, has shown promise in reducing levels of cholesterol in the blood, and at reducing the rate at which glucose enters the bloodstream. Soluble fiber is abundant in dried peas, lentils, beans, barley, oat bran, and in many fruits and vegetables.

How much fiber is enough
Many people are unsure just how much dietary fiber they need every day, but most dietitians recommend that women consume between 21 and 25 grams of dietary fiber per day. For men, the recommendation is 30 to 38 grams of fiber each day.

Of course, that is easier said that done, and it is important to know which foods are high in fiber in order to boost your daily fiber consumption. In the case of packaged foods like breads and crackers, the fiber content will be listed as part of the nutritional label. In the case of fruits and vegetables, there are charts which show the fiber content of an average size piece. Some grocery stores post this information, and it is also widely available on the internet.

When increasing dietary fiber, it is best to make the increase gradual. A sudden jump in dietary fiber can lead to bloating, gas and abdominal discomfort. In addition, it is important to drink plenty of fluids, especially water, in order for fiber to have the best effect. When choosing breads and cereals, it is best to go with healthier whole grains. In general, the less processing, the healthier the foods.

Eating the skins of fruits and vegetables is a great way to increase dietary fiber. Many people like to make fruit shakes and smoothies that use the skins of their favorite fruits. This makes a delicious and nutritious way to increase fiber consumption. In addition, keeping a variety of fiber rich foods, such as apples, nuts, seeds and bran muffins, around for snacks is a great idea.

And finally, eating a wide variety of foods will ensure that you get plenty of fiber, as well as the vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and trace elements that make a balanced diet so important.
About the Author

Zaak O’Conan discovers and presents useful information on how to enhance and/or repair your life, body and relationships. You’ll find his other articles on eating better and other ways how to improve your life at http://your-health-center.com

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Fast food is a big part of modern life these days, making it very hard to teach a child how he or she should eat healthy. The cheapest and easiest foods are those that are normally the least healthy. If you give your child the choice between healthy food
and junk food, you normally won’t like the results.

Even though it isn’t possible to get a child to like all healthy foods, there are some ways to get your child to try and hopefully like at least a few of them. You can be as creative as you like, as getting kids to eat healthy foods can be a little harder than
you may think.

– Sneak the healthy food in. Even though it would be great if your kid understood the importance of fruits and vegetables, this isn’t always possible. If you can’t get them to eat good food willingly, there are ways to sneak them in, such as making
muffins out of bananas or apples, or pizza with spinach on it.

– Call fruits and vegetables by funny names. You can refer to broccoli as “trees”, making them more fun to eat. There are many different names you can call fruits and vegetables, even making up your own if you prefer. Most kids prefer to eat foods that sound fun.

– Make the foods taste better. Ranch dressing is great for broccoli, while peanut butter is a great topping for celery. There are several combinations for vegetables that can make them taste much better. You can let your child pick a topping for a vegetable, even if it’s something you wouldn’t normally like yourself.

– Dress the vegetables up. Just as much as calling them names help kids eat healthy foods, making them look funny also helps. You can do this by making funny designs on the plate, or setting them up to look like people. Although some parents don’t like
their kids playing with their food, sometimes it helps to get them to eat healthier.

There are several ways to make your kids eat healthier, but to make them enjoy it also has to be fun as well. This isn’t always an easy task, because kids normally don’t like foods that are good for them. It can however, be done with a bit of creativity. Hopefully, doing this will help your child develop a love of healthy foods for the
rest of their lives.

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You may also know the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet as the Grapefruit Diet. This diet is all about eating certain foods at particular times each day. Each meal will include half a grapefruit which is where it gets the name ‘grapefruit diet’. Although the diet is not actually endorsed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the name of the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet still lives on.

Let’s take a look at the three main meals of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet.

Breakfast – For breakfast each morning you will have a black tea or coffee, half a grapefruit and bread with some protein. For the bread and protein you could have toast with egg, toast with cheese or toast with peanut butter.

Lunch – lunch will also include protein and bread. Some examples of lunch could be toast with a boiled egg, toast with 1/2 cup of tuna or cottage cheese on crackers. You can also have a black tea or coffee with lunch.

Dinner – dinner is the most substantial meal of the day with this diet. Day 1 dinner includes 3 oz lean turkey, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of green beans, 1 apple and 1 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 2 dinner consists of 2 beef franks, 1 cup of cabbage or broccoli, 1/2 cup of carrots, 1/2 a banana and 1/2 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 3 dinner includes 1 cup of tuna, 1 cup of cauliflower, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of melon and 1/2 cup of ice-cream.

Every meal should include 1/2 a grapefruit or 4 oz. of grapefruit juice.

The key to success with this diet plan is that you must drink at least 32 ounces of water a day.

There are a lot of people that swear by this diet and have said you can lose 6 points in the three days of the diet. Here are some of the reasons why this diet is so effective.

1. The number of calories consumed is extremely restricted. Even though the diet includes ice-cream every day you are still only eating around 1200 calories a day.

2. This diet helps to flush out your system and help you to lose a lot of water weight.

3. This is not a permanent weight loss. This is a fast weight loss and if you go right back to your usual eating habits as soon as you finish the 3 days then you will put the weight back on.

So what is the point of dieting for 3 days if you are just going to put it back on? This diet is great if you have an event coming up that you want to lose a few pounds for. If you have a wedding, school reunion or want to fit into your skinny jeans to go to a concert, then this diet can help you to do that.

Although grapefruit is a vital part of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet, there is no proof that it has any magical weight loss qualities. Not everyone likes grapefruit and some people will substitute it for orange during the diet.

Grapefruit does however have 6 grams of fiber in half a grapefruit so when you are eating 3 servings of it a day then you are getting 18 out of the 25 grams of recommended daily fiber. Diets that are high in fiber will help to flush out the system and assist with weight loss. Grapefruit juice though does not have any fiber.

The Mayo Clinic 3 day diet can also be useful to kick-start a diet and give you a fast weight loss to begin your weight loss journey and when you finish the 3 days on this diet you can then move onto a healthy eating plan to lose more weight in a slower time period. The kick-start at the beginning of the diet can help motivate you to continue to eat healthy and lose more weight.

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