Natalie: The question of the day is what is fiber. Pause the video, let us know what you think and then replay the video. Now if you are sure what fiber was that's okya, because I looked in four dictionaries and I didn't even find a good definition either but just to let you know fiber is the indigestible portion of plants that when you eat them it moves through your digestive track, absorb the water and helps eased defecation or helps you have regular bowel movements.
Before I go over the benefits of fiber, I want to tell you the difference between two types of fiber out there, there is soluble and there is insoluble fiber. The soluble fiber is the fiber that is absorbs in water, it is actually dissolved in water and that type of fiber helps to lower cholesterol and the insoluble fiber is not absorbed in the digestive track so it ends up in the colon and it basically can be called because it adds both to your bowel movements. So, there are two different kinds and they have two different benefits in general.
The first benefit is fiber can help you reduce your risk for heart disease. Heart disease is still one of the major killers in the united states both for men and women and with a higher risk for heart disease you are going to have potential for heart attacks, blockage, you may need bypass surgery, there is all different complications associated with heart disease but there is a real simple way to help reduce that risk and that is through dietary fiber.
The second benefit from fiber is that it can actually help reduce your risk for diabetes and the way this happens because the fiber and not is the soluble fiber which comes from oats and barley that kind of fiber will help to reduce that how quick the sugar enter your blood stream, so you don't get that spike in blood sugar which is known as hyperglycemia and then if you do get that spike in blood sugar it causes your pancreas to release insulin and if that happens over and over then that increases your risk for diabetes.
So, actually having the fiber in your diet can prevent that from happening. Another benefit and the studies are so out there some are conflicting so fiber may decrease your risk for colon cancer, so it's still kind of up for debate, my professional opinion is that yes it does and not necessarily not just because of the fiber but because the foods that have the fiber in them also helped to prevent cancer and another benefit with dietary fiber is actually can prevent a disease a called diabeticular disease and this is very your intestines get inflamed and they develop patches and those patches getting affected and that can cause a lot of issues but with fiber there are some studies out there that have shown that there is a link between reduced risk for this disease and dietary fiber content.
Another benefit is that insoluble fiber which comes from whole wheat foods unlike that's have a fiber as called insoluble fiber and that adds bulk to your bowel movements, so a sort of it has a laxative effect, its not going to cause diarrhea but it actually will promote normal regular healthy bowel movements and one of the most important benefits for dietary fiber is that it can help to decrease weight gain and promote healthy weight and the way that it does that is because when you eat fiber rich foods that helps you feel full quicker and longer so you end up eating less at meal times and less throughout the day because you don't get as hungry.
The average person in America only eats less than half of the recommended amount of fiber a day and what kids and adolescents their average intake is just only about 20% of the recommendations and in my opinion the lack of fiber in someone's diet can contribute to diabetes, obesity, GI problems like irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, I mean there is a lot of side effects associated with the lack of fiber. So the real fiber that you want comes from whole fruits vegetables and whole grains.
So, when in go over some examples just to give you an idea of what to look out for when you are grocery shopping. Fruits, the black berries are the highest in fiber, one cup of black berries has eight grams of fiber and then to give you some more ideas one pear has 5 grams and apple has 4 grams, dried apricots, prunes, figs, kiwi those all are pretty high in fiber and then something else that I want to remind you is that there is a complete difference in fiber intake between a juice and the real fruit.
If you eat a whole orange, you are getting about 4 grams of fiber in that orange, however if you are drinking a cup of orange juice you are only getting half of them, so keep that in mind don't use the juice as your serving for fruit because you are missing out all the great fiber.
Moving on to vegetables, half a cup of green peas has five grams of fiber, sweet potato baked with the skin on it has 4 grams and that's a pretty good general word to keep in mind, when you are cooking a fruit or vegetable if you take the peel off you are loosing most of the fiber that fruit or vegetable contains. So, try to eat as much as possible with the skin on them. Broccoli half a cup has 3 grams, asparagus, carrots, all of the green bell peppers are all pretty high and then in comparison one tomato only has 2 grams, so tomatoes are one of the most popular eaten vegetables out there but they are one of the lowest in fiber.
Grains and pasta, there is one cup of whole wheat pasta has 6 grams of fiber, brown rice has 3 grams of fiber, white rice only has half a gram of fiber and then moving onto some of the other categories, nuts almonds, about 24 almonds has 4 grams of fiber, that's really high. Black bean are another good source, kidney beans, oat bran, oat meal and there is some high fiber cereals out there that are made from the whole grains. So, these are some really options for you to start including in your diet.
Coming up I am going to do video about the benefits of breastfeeding and what we are going to talk about is it really true that if you don't breastfeed your kids long enough that it can promote obesity for them in the future and then the other video I am going to do is the truth about alcohol because you hear you know on one end its so good for you, it helps reduce your risk for heart disease and on the other end you know you can die for liver damage, so we are going to talk about the truth about alcohol and I also want to say thank you so much to everybody who rates my videos and especially the people who leave comments.
I read every single one of your comments and I may not be able to reply to everyone but I do read it and I really appreciate that you take the time to just to let me know what you think about the video. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time, bye, bye.
There are over 350 videos on our channel in YouTube and the topics range from weight loss, nutrition, sexual health, all the way to psychology and mind control and anywhere in between and I think if you check them out you are going to find some really interesting stuff.
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