Don't Forget Fiber

The quick answer:  Over the last century, dietary sugar consumption rose as fiber intake declined.  To reduce your risk of overweight and disease, eat more natural fiber than sugar.

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The 20^th Century was a dietary disaster—we’ve said it before, but repetition is a principle of learning.  The industrialization of our food is presented in the graph above that compares traditional diets (Developing Countries) to the modern Western diet. For the thoughtful person, there is much food wisdom in this chart.

The diet of the Western countries makes a good business—not just for the food processors that comprise Food Inc. but also for the medical establishment that treats the resulting chronic diseases.  A premise of this blog is that as we eat and live better, we will have less need of doctors, drugs, and hospitals.  We’ll still die, and perhaps from those same chronic diseases, but we’ll have more years of good health to enjoy, and less years of bad health to endure.  (A younger person diagnosed with cancer, for example, will linger longer than an older less vigorous person with the same disease.  My Father died of cancer in his 90^th year, but it was just a week from diagnosis to his passing.)

Two metrics define the 20th Century damage to our dietary: the year-by-year rise of sugar consumption, and the corresponding decline in fiber intake.  The third Healthy Change established the rule that food products must be made of whole grains and contain more natural fiber than sugar.  Prior posts addressed sugar; this post is about fiber.

The original weight-loss marvel:

Fiber is essentially the structural material of plant cells.  Whether soluble or insoluble (it doesn’t matter which, we need both), fiber is the original weight loss marvel: it provides lasting fullness yet has zero calories.   In addition, fiber optimizes the rate of digestion, slowing the rate that starch enters the blood as glucose (thus softening the swings in blood sugar and insulin that cause type 2 diabetes and fat storage) while speeding the passage of food through the G.I. tract (which reduces the risk of colon cancer). 

Dr. Denis Burkitt

In the course of the year we highlight twelve heroes of better nutrition, including Dr. Denis Burkitt.  Dr. Burkitt served in Africa as a missionary surgeon and his keen study of disease patterns led to the ‘80s bestseller, Don’t Forget Fibre in Your Diet.  (No fiber isn’t misspelled; Burkitt was English.)  The informative graph displayed above is from his book.  Burkitt single-handedly brought the removal of fiber by the industrialization of food to the public consciousness.  From his research—he painstakingly established a large network among hospitals to monitor the incidence of diseases—Burkitt linked the disappearance of dietary fiber with modern diseases like constipation (the first sign of fiber deficiency), type 2 diabetes, heart disease, gallstones, and breast and colon cancers.

Fiber deficiency diseases:

Over the last century fiber was steadily removed from our diet by the rise of processed foods, and the chronic diseases noted above.  Another result—I’ll try to be delicate here—was increased constipation.   (Fiber deficiency isn’t the only cause; other factors include too little exercise or fluid intake, or a diet high in dairy products.)  Most people don’t realize the danger of constipation-caused straining during bowel movements:

• Straining causes hiatal hernias, a condition where the upper portion of the stomach is forced into the chest cavity, which causes the leakage of stomach acid and heartburn.  Rather than diet reform, people take antacids (Alka-Seltzer, Milk of Magnesia, Pepto-Bismol); more recently drugs to reduce acid production (Pepcid, Tagamet, Zantac) have been heavily advertised.
• Straining can force partially digested food into the appendix where it can lodge, become infected, and lead to appendicitis.  Appendicitis is the most common emergency surgery of the stomach.
• Straining can cause bulges or aneurysms in the large colon and the serious disease of diverticulitis.
• Finally, straining is associated with the painful problem of hemorrhoids, which require no explanation.

Foods rich in fiber:

The humble legume—whether pea, lentil, or bean—provides more fiber than any other food.  See here for the legumes highest in fiber.

Besides legumes, foods rich in fiber include (for details go here):

• Whole grains (a 2011 study showed whole grains to be significantly protective of death from all causes),
• Nuts and seeds,
• Fruits, especially berries,
• Vegetables, particularly root vegetables such as yams.

Budget Wisdom:

It’s well known that legumes provide the best nutrition value for your food dollar.  What’s surprising is how little shelf space markets dedicate to dried beans, the very best food value.  Selling for around a dollar per pound, you can feed the family for pennies per serving.  If you’re serious about food value, this week’s Healthy Change is a natural.

Please comment:  Share the ways you include legumes in your family’s diet.

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change reminder card. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

Graph from the book Don't Forget Fiber in Your Diet by Denis Burkitt

The Skinny on Overweight

I’m moved by the genuineness of our readers.  A bit overweight?  Well, it’s right out there in your comments.  Summer is coming—school will be out in about 100 days and swimming suit season follows.  Thinking about dieting?  Forget it.  Diets are temporary and Word of Wisdom Living is about permanent, healthful change.  Fortunately, a healthy lifestyle usually leads to a healthy body.  I say usually because we’re all different, but eating right is the place to start.   

A heavy guilt trip has been put on the overweight and obese in our society.  This is counterproductive; it just doesn’t work, as evidenced by the continuing national weight gain.  So lets do something smarter.  The common wisdom says weight gain occurs because we eat too much and move too little—excess calories become excess fat.  So, shame on the overweight?  Maybe not.   

W of W Living suggests a different theory:

This theory removes self-starvation—but not a little self-discipline—from the cure for overweight.  The hunger impulse is too strong to ignore for long, so we need a better strategy.  Here’s a new plan, based on the sugar-insulin theory of weight control: Simply eat a reasonable amount of healthy food and you’re on your way to a good weight.  Real food is rich in nutrients and filling fiber, but low in calories.  And don’t forget to exercise, get plenty of sleep, enjoy a little sunshine, and deal with whatever stress is making you snack.

Lest you credit me with too much genius, I must acknowledge the sugar-insulin theory has been around for a while.  Unfortunately, society tends to solutions that place guilt rather than enlighten—so the worn-out “eat less, move more” mantra persists in the media.  We’ll deal more thoroughly with being overweight in a later post, but here are a couple of suggestions from the Word of Wisdom on eating:

1. Lower your blood sugar and insulin levels by avoiding factory food.  Factory food is high in refined carbs (the white stuff—sugar, flour, white rice, plus HFCS) that raise your blood sugar and insulin levels.  Insulin moves the excess blood sugar into our fat cells and keeps it there.  If you don’t significantly reduce the refined carbs in your diet your waistline will keep growing.

2. Farm food has a low glycemic index (G.I.)—a measure of its ability to spike your blood sugar level.  A diet with a low G.I. lowers your insulin level and results in smaller fat cells.  Smaller fat cells mean a smaller waistline.  So enjoy some fruit and nuts along with lots of vegetables, whole grains, legumes, with a little meat and dairy.

3. If you buy factory food you’ll eat it.  So avoid the center aisles in the grocery store that offer sugary drinks, cookies, candy, chips, and bakery goods.  (Ever noticed that the baked goods in stores don't even taste that good?  If you're really craving apple pie, make your own!)

4. Life is to be enjoyed, but get your guilty pleasures in the smallest possible dose.  I like See’s candy, but I follow Healthy Change #8.  If I see a store in the mall I get my favorite piece.  But we don’t bring boxes or bags of candy into the house.  Sad experience has taught that if it’s in the house it’ll get eaten.

5. Besides sugary drinks, avoid diet drinks too.  They’re less healthy than water for a number of reasons, but there is another problem:  Studies show that diet drinks DO NOT result in you eating less sugar.  In fact, they seem to reinforce the infantile desire for sugar so you get extra sugar in other forms (more to come on this topic).  Per Healthy Change #6, drink lots of water.

Lifestyle change works best if your friends join in, so pass the word.  And please share your weight loss experience by adding a comment, so we can learn together.