Does the box have more fiber than your cereal?

Healthy by Nature radio show this week: Jerald Tennant, MD gives me a fascinating lesson in how pH and illness are related to the voltage of our cells. He wrote: Healing is Voltage: The Handbook and Healing is Voltage: Healing Eye Diseases (Dr. Tennant will give a talk on voltage at Natural HealthFest at 1:00. He is also on our 9:00 Keynote Panel.) Then I talk with Alfred Johnson, DO about allergies, food sensitivities and environmental medicine. (He is also on our 9:00 Keynote Panel and giving a talk at 10:30, Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment-Acute and Chronic Disease).  Click here to find podcasts, show archives and ways to listen nationwide.
 
FUN FIBER FACTOIDS
Only plant foods contain fiber.

Fiber is filling but it does not provide meaningful calories.

It takes excess cholesterol out of the body; adds bulk to the stool; and provides food for the crucial friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract.

Fiber helps slow the absorption of food, thereby allowing a more gradual increase in blood sugar and less storage of fat.
 
When plant foods are refined and processed, the fiber is usually removed along with other nutrients. The refined result bears little resemblance to the original source. For example: corn becomes corn syrup and a fibrous orange becomes fiber-free orange juice. In the process of turning whole wheat grain into white flour, a couple dozen nutrients are removed, including the fiber. (“Enriched” wheat flour sounds good but is actually just depleted white flour with a few inferior form nutrients added back. White flour is a refined starch that, thanks to the action of an enzyme in saliva, actually starts becoming sugar before it even leaves the mouth.
 
Fiber is a carbohydrate. But, because we don’t metabolize fiber into sugar, you can more or less deduct the fiber listed on a food label from the carbohydrate total. For example, Kellogg’s All Bran cereal lists 23 grams of carbohydrate, but 10 grams of that is fiber. So, the net carbohydrate is roughly 13 grams. Ideally, look for cereal that has as much fiber as it does sugar. (The boxes probably do have more fiber, but they don’t taste good.)

How much fiber do we need?  The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine says “the recommended intake for total fiber for adults 50 years and younger is set at 38 grams for men and 25 grams for women, while for men and women over 50 it is 30 and 21 grams per day, respectively…”.  Let me make a ridiculous comparison of ways a 40 year old man can reach a goal of 38 grams of fiber:

He could try to get it from pretzel sticks. They are made of white flour and contain only 1 gram of fiber per serving. Therefore, he would have to eat 38 servings of them or over 2,000 pretzel sticks. Of course, his blood sugar and insulin would be repeatedly spiked. Unless he’s training for a marathon that many servings is more than a day’s worth of calories and he could eat nothing else…BORING! He’d also get a whole week’s worth of sodium.

What about steak? He could never eat enough steak to reach that goal because meat does not contain any fiber at all.

Or, check out this plan to get 38 grams of fiber: 1 cup serving of high fiber cereal (13 grams), ½ cup raspberries (4 grams), ½ ounce of walnuts (.95 grams), ½ cup of kidney beans (8.2 grams), 1 cup spaghetti squash (2.2 grams), 1 cup broccoli (5.5 grams) and 1 medium apple (4.4 grams).  This assortment is high in potassium and other nutrients. It won’t spike a healthy person’s blood sugar and is low in sodium and calories.  Even if this guy also eats the two steaks and puts milk on the cereal, he still has only consumed only a little over half the calories the government says is a good level for a man to maintain normal weight.

Note: Increase fiber intake slowly to allow your intestinal bacteria to adjust (and avoid fiber toots.)
 
 MORE ON NATURAL HEALTHFEST 2012
There are a limited number of tickets to the Keynote Lectures (proceeds go to charity). I recommend that you purchase them on line to avoid being disappointed at the door. (You also earn bonus door prize entries when you buy tickets online at  or call now toll free 1-877-262-7843). The variety of exhibitors is amazing. A souvenir program is something new this year. (It will have a color map and a reference section that will be useful long after the event.) There is so much to learn in workshops and you can even adopt a pet.

www.NaturalHealthFest.com
Saturday, March 31, 2012, 9 AM to 5 PM
(doors open at 8 AM for ticket sales and radio broadcast)
Location: Plano Centre, 2000 Spring Creek Pkwy, Plano TX 75074—Just east of US-75 (Central Expwy) at Exit #31.

Thanks to our corporate sponsors: KWRD, KSKY, KLTY, Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics and RealFoodGrocery.com

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My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book: Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

The information contained in this newsletter has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents are for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice.

Copyright 2012 Martie Whittekin, CCN