Small Steps, Sensible Choices, Superior Health.

Fiber Rich Foods
Are Healthy Choices

If you are eating LOTS of fiber rich foods it's possible that you're getting enough fiber in your diet.

Fresh fruits and vegetables (including the skins) as well as whole grains, nuts and seeds are all good sources of dietary fiber.

Unfortunately, most of us don't eat as many fiber rich foods as we'd like.

To see how you're doing on your fiber intake, you can take a short questionnaire. The link can be found in the Additional Resources below.

But when you do eat fruits and vegetables, make sure you eat the skins and seed because that's where most of the fiber and minerals are.

The Benefits of Fiber

When you don't eat enough fiber rich foods it can take it's toll on your health.

The benefits of having fiber in the diet include:

• It promotes regular elimination
• It lowers your risk of colon cancer
• It helps to detoxify the body by absorbing toxins
• It limits inflammation of the gut
• It helps to feed the friendly bacteria in our body
• It helps to prevent diverticulitis and hemorrhoids
• It regulates hypoglycemia and diabetes by slowing the release of sugar into the blood stream
• It absorbs bile from the gallbladder and helps to lower cholesterol

Fiber Cleanses Your Body

Aside from water, fiber is the next important thing needed to help cleanse the body of toxins. The fiber's job is to absorb the toxins and carry them out of the body. Not having enough fiber allows the toxins to be re-absorbed into the body.

When taking a fiber supplement, it's best not to take them at the same time as your vitamins. Just because you may not fully absorb the vitamins if they bind with the fiber and get flushed out of the body before being fully absorbed.

For a daily general cleansing fiber, some good choices would be products that contain:

• psyllium seed hulls
  
• apple fruit fiber
  
• oat inner husk bran.

If you have an inflammatory bowel condition, softer fibers that soothe and reduce inflammation in the colon would be a better choice.

Some good fiber choices for persons that have inflammatory bowel disorders or cramping of the colon are products that contain:

• slippery elm bark
• apple pectin
  
• marshmallow root.
  

Flax seeds are a healthy choice for people that tend to have dry stools and cramping in the intestines.

You can purchase them from the health food store and they are usually in a refrigerated section.

You can buy them whole and grind them weekly in a coffee grinder to keep them fresher.

You can also put the ground flax seed into baked goods, you won't even notice them. I also like to put them on my yoghurt and oatmeal.

Flax seeds are soothing and lubricating to the colon. Try them, you'll like them!

Another form of fiber (although a harsher option) for cleansing is hydrated bentonite clay. It draws toxins from the bowel tissue and can help remove debris that is caught in pockets of the colon (diverticulosis).

However, a word of caution here, this is not advisable for those with irritable bowel, intestinal inflammation or cramping. It's a much harsher option.

Don't forget to check out the Fiber Questionnaire to see how you're doing on your fiber intake.

Additional Resources

Fiber Questionnaire

Return to Home Page