Fiber and Fat Loss

Illustration-of-Soluble-and-Insoluble-Fiber-Benefits

If you eat fiber foods, you will not only improve your overall health but you can also lose a lot of weight! Fiber helps the heart by clearing out bad cholesterol which lowers your risk of heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure. Not only does added fiber can add years to your life by protecting you from heart problems, colon cancer and other intestinal diseases but it help your extra weight come off more quickly.

High fiber foods require more chewing and stay in the stomach longer, which will prevent you from overeating. The Nurses' Health Study of nearly 75,000 women showed that simply boosting consumption of fiber and whole-grain foods can help cut the risk of obesity in half.

Dietary fiber is either soluble or insoluble. Soluble fiber keeps cholesterol and saturated fats from getting absorbed into your bloodstream and controls blood sugar. Insoluble fiber fills you up quickly, keeps hunger at bay longer, regulates blood sugar more evenly and keeps you "regular", especially if you add more water to your eating habits.

The recommended amount of daily fiber is 20-35 grams. This sounds like a lot to eat but adding fiber does not necessarily mean eating dry bran muffins or rabbit food you dislike. There are many simple fun foods with fiber which can provide all the benefits without sacrificing flavor.

Lose those 10 pounds by adding these fun fiber foods to your salad: dry roasted mixed nuts or pumpkin seeds blueberries, dried figs, artichoke hearts, dried cherries, and pine nuts. The more whole grains, fruits, legumes, vegetables and nuts you eat the faster those pounds will fall off of you. Eat whole fruits instead of drinking fruit juices. To get the most fiber from vegetables and fruits leaves peals on! Replace white bread, rice, and pastas with whole grain products and brown rice.

A good source of fiber is one that provides 2.5 to 4.9 grams per serving. Some fun examples of fiber foods are:

• Two cups of fresh blackberries for dessert have 14.4 grams of fiber.
  Dried figs have 5.2 grams of fiber so by munching on 9 of them, say as a snack or in a bulgur salad, you just ate 15.6 grams.
  One medium baked sweet potato with peel has 4.8 grams.
  1 ounce of almonds has 3.3 grams.
  Add raisins in your lettuce: ½ cup of raisins has 3 grams.
  Add fruits into your diet: one medium orange, apple or apple offer about 3 grams.
  One medium raw apple with skin has 3.3 grams.
  A bowl of steel-cut oats oatmeal in the morning gives you 3.9 grams of fiber per 3/4 cup. Add half a cup of blueberries and you have an additional 2 grams of fiber plus a high dose of antioxidants.
  ¼ cup of oat bran cereal has 3.6 grams. Add ½ cup of raw raspberries for an extra 4 grams of fiber.
  One cup of plain baby spinach salad for lunch or dinner has 7 grams of fiber. Add some carrots, radishes, artichoke hearts and celery and you have almost a full day's recommended amount of fiber.

Those fiber grams add up quickly and they taste good. Your heart will get stronger, you'll be more "regular", your intestines will be protected from diseases and you'll be doing all this while you are losing the undesirable weight you want.