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Your Fill of Fiber
Getting the Nutrition You Need
By Jill Weisenberger
A diet rich in fiber is also lush in vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals (disease-fighters in plants) and tends to be lower in calories and fat. These combined dietary characteristics are associated with lower body weight and better health. "We don't know if it's the fiber itself, but we do know that foods high in fiber are protective against disease," says Melanie Polk, registered dietitian and director of Nutrition Education for the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. "It could be the phytochemicals, the fiber, the combination of various phytochemicals or the combination of fiber and phytochemicals." She encourages fiber-rich foods at every meal.
Donkersloot concurs that fiber-rich foods belong on every plate and in every lunchbox. "No one food has enough fiber, so it's important to have an unprocessed grain at each meal," she says. "Maybe oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich on whole-grain bread for lunch and corn for dinner." She also recommends a fruit or vegetable at every meal and snack. Get your kids used to good-for-you foods early. Remember that young children may need to see, touch, smell and taste a new food several times before fully accepting it.
Dieters don't have to be hungry to lose weight. In fact, she says, most people are surprised by the quantity of food they're allowed when they start substituting healthful, high-fiber foods for their usual food choices. Consider an afternoon snack. Both two cups of cantaloupe and 20 small pretzel twists (about 1/2 cup) weigh in at about 120 calories. In a bowl, the cantaloupe looks like more. It likely takes longer to eat, and it certainly has more nutrition – more vitamins A and C and the minerals potassium and magnesium. The cantaloupe serves up three grams fiber, but the pretzels only one.
