absorbs water, can also lead to dehydration. When increasing fiber in your diet, do it gradually, giving your body time to adjust, and increase the amount of fluids you drink to at least 6—8 cups per day. Fiber in very large amounts can also interfere with the absorption of some minerals, such as zinc, iron, magnesium, and calcium.
The Upside
1. Whole-grain, high-fiber foods tend to be low in fat and calories (fiber does not provide calories or fuel) and can often prevent you from eating too much fat and protein from animal products. This can reduce your risks of heart disease, overweight, constipation, and high blood glucose levels.
2. Whole-grain, high-fiber foods make us feel full and satisfied at meals and snacks without adding extra calories, and they help prevent overeating or going back for an extra helping. These foods also take longer to chew, so your brain has adequate time to notify your stomach that you are full.
3. Whole-grain, high-fiber foods form a large bulk in the intestine and help push the food through the digestive tract at a faster rate. This results in less pressure on the walls of the intestine, which reduces the risk of constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis.
4. Research has shown that by eating more soluble fiber, you can reduce risk of heart disease by lowering your LDL (bad) cholesterol.
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Get healthy. A healthy fiber intake should be between 20 and 35 grams each day. This means that many Americans would have to double their intake.
2. Variety can add fiber. Eat a variety of carbohydrate foods to ensure that you get the health benefits from both soluble and insoluble fiber.
3. Eat more vegetables. Eat three or more servings of vegetables a day: 1 serving equals 1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw vegetables.
4. Eat two or more servings of fruit each day. One serving equals 1 small piece of fruit, 1/2 cup canned fruit, or 1 cup of cut-up fresh fruit.
5. Eat at least six servings of grain products and legumes a day. One serving equals 1 slice whole-grain bread, 1/3 cup brown rice or pasta, 1 small potato with the skin, or 1/2 cup legumes or oatmeal. Tip: Add a handful of beans to a salad.
6. Eat fewer processed foods. Make sure the label’s first ingredient on breads, cereals, and crackers is whole-grain flour, such as whole-wheat flour instead of just wheat flour or enriched wheat flour. Whole-wheat bread is not the same as wheat bread.
7. Substitute items. Use low-fat, low-calorie toppings (for example, 1 Tbsp salsa or 1 Tbsp nonfat sour cream) on starchy foods instead of the high-fat toppings, which add too many calories.
8. Get more from your foods. For extra fiber, leave the skin and peels on fruits and vegetables, if possible. Fruits with seeds, such as raspberries and strawberries, also contain a lot of fiber.
9. Use whole-grain flours when cooking and baking.
10. Get help before taking supplements. Check with your doctor or dietitian before taking a fiber pill or supplement. Fiber replacements lack other nutrients found in actual fiber-containing foods and often don’t contain that much fiber anyway.
11. Add a few sprinkles. Sprinkle some ground flaxseed into your morning cereal or add it to your salad or yogurt.
SUMMARY
For years, starch has been thought of as the “fattening” ingredient in foods. Don’t forget, however, that many starchy foods are eaten with added fat! When we eat potatoes, bread, corn, pasta, and vegetables, we rarely eat them without putting some sort of fat on them—butter, margarine, sour cream, cream cheese, and cheese sauce. What about a pasta meal? Not only are we served large quantities of pasta, but we also add several slices of Italian bread, breaded cutlets, and tomato sauce, with croutons on the salad, most of which contain carbohydrate in the form of starch. By the end of the meal, the carbohydrate has added up to an excessive amount. It isn’t the starch or the pasta that causes weight gain and high blood glucose levels, it’s the total amount of calories from carbohydrate and the fat and protein that was consumed.
Three nutrients provide fuel to the human body: carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Protein foods provide the most expensive fuel, take longer to empty from the stomach, and do not provide the quantity of fuel that carbohydrate does. Because Americans already eat too much protein and animal products, which puts us at a high risk for heart disease, many can not afford to add more, either financially or in terms of our health. Unfortunately, the brain and the central nervous system do not use the fuel from fatty foods efficiently. Fat also provides twice as many calories as carbohydrate and protein and is linked to insulin resistance, overweight, and obesity when consumed in large amounts. So that leaves us with carbohydrate, the major fuel source for our body. Food starch is probably the most important fuel source for energy and the most preferred fuel used by our brains and nervous system.
Contrary to what you hear from promoters of the many low-carbohydrate diets now on the market, low-carbohydrate diets dismiss evidence offered by well-known researchers and proven studies and condemn carbohydrate as the culprit in the development of diabetes, high blood sugars, and weight gain. The 2005 U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines actually directs Americans on how to eat in a balanced and healthy way by eating plenty of carbohydrate and fiber-rich foods, moderate amounts of protein, and low amounts of fat.
YOUR TURN
Now it’s your turn to recall some key points from this chapter. Let’s see how you do!
1. All Americans should be eating 20—35 grams of fiber per day, whether they have diabetes or not. True or false?
2. Fiber is only found in plant foods. True or false?
3. The fiber most helpful in lowering cholesterol and fats in the blood is ____________ fiber.
4. The one type of carbohydrate that helps us feel “full” and satisfied after a meal is ______________.
See APPENDIX A for the answers.
People with diabetes should follow a high-protein diet to stay healthy and strong.
MARK: I’ve been reading that I should probably be on a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet to help keep my blood sugars down.
DIETITIAN: While it is important to get enough protein in our diets to stay healthy, most of us get more than we need. We still need to get most of our calories from carbohydrate rather than protein, even if you have diabetes, because our bodies use carbohydrate for energy.
MARK: Okay, but because I’m exercising more to lose weight, plus lifting weights, shouldn’t I be eating a lot of protein or even taking protein supplements to build more muscle?
DIETITIAN: Actually, the only way to really build stronger muscles is with regular exercise and a meal plan that contains anywhere from 40 to 60% of calories from carbohydrate, not from taking protein supplements or eating large portions of protein. Too much protein may even be harmful to your kidneys, especially if your doctor told you that you are spilling some protein in your urine.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Like Mark, most people think they don’t get enough protein in their diets. There have been so many misconceptions over the years about protein and what it can do for us that we sometimes wonder if we truly get enough. Protein has practically been touted as a miracle nutrient. Several popular