Fiber: The Roto Rooter of the Diet |
Fiber Is More than Just Lint
The typical American diet is much too low in fiber. Fiber is a carbohydrate that is not digested, therefore contributing little in the way of calories. Fiber’s companion, starch, on the other hand, contributes four calories per gram. Being mostly cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and gums, fiber is of two types: soluble and insoluble. The former may help to lower cholesterol and to control blood sugar. It is found in oat products, barley, rye, dried beans, and apples, among other foods. The latter, sometimes called roughage, helps to keep the bowel clean and to prevent constipation. It appears in fruits and vegetables (with skins), whole grain cereals, pasta products, brans, and whole grains.
There has been debate about the protective effect of fiber in the prevention of colon cancer. Dietitians and nutritionists—who are didactically similar but clinically divergent, particularly in that nutritionists do not generally engage in food service or parenteral feeding—have the wherewithal to keep abreast of reports about dietary influences upon health, whereas other healthcare professionals might not. It is generally agreed that fiber exerts tremendous protective effect in the colon. It stops the impaction of wastes along the intestine walls, where it may ferment and induce an environment deleterious to sound tissue via a focal inflammatory response. Epithelial cell proliferation is implicated in the development of colon cancer. Fiber interferes with this mechanism.
For my money, one of the worst inventions of the twentieth century is white bread. When I was a kid, moms were thrilled to hear about bread that builds strong bodies nine ways. Yep, nine. Now, the same balloon-festooned label says twelve. As an inquisitive adult, I asked why a company would take all the intrinsic nutrients out of the wheat and replace it with only a dozen artificial ones. Moms never knew about the nutrition fractions in the wheat berry. Talk about the Dark Ages!
The goodness of the whole wheat is stripped off and sent to the pet food manufacturers. It’s no wonder your dog lives to be ninety-eight years old. People, it was decided by who knows, are unable to chew for themselves, whole grains being crunchy and all that. So…wallpaper paste was shaped into loaves, packed in plastic, and shipped to the A & P. We used this stuff as bait when we fished for shiners. A little ball of dampened white bread would stay on the hook for a couple hours in the running water of the Cooper River in Camden, NJ. Those little fish would spit it out after they were caught, and we could use it over. Golly, even the fish knew about white bread regressing into dough. I was taught a course by an octogenarian surgeon who claimed that he removed from several patients impacted white bread that was a few decades inside their colons. If this is really so, it is time for the old roto-rooter of foods - fiber.
If you want to eat bread, choose whole wheat. Make sure the first ingredient on the label is just that. If you like cereal for breakfast, choose whole-grain. Believe it or not, a couple of those cereals that claim to be nutrient-packed with 100% of this and that are sprayed with liquefied vitamins and minerals. If you don’t drink the milk into which they dissolve, you don’t get the nutriment. Keep the skins on the potatoes and the apples.
If you don’t already, start eating salads with lunch and dinner. Dump the white bread sandwiches for lunch and the dinner rolls at suppertime. Eat broccoli and carrots. Have some beans.
Over the long haul fats, refined flour, and sugars will interfere with proper function of the bowel. A bathroom library may be edifying, but it reflects functional inadequacy, a small problem now that could be a major one later.
That which is touched by the hand of nature, such as bran and whole grains, raw fruits and vegetables that have not been processed, and “unhormonized” meat, is good. That which has been tainted, controlled, or colored by the hand of man is of dubious value.
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