Dietary fiber is vital for a healthy diet. It provides many health benefits. Do you know why fiber is good for our health? For one thing, it helps control the blood sugar level and lowers the cholesterol level as well. That is why we have to try hard to incorporate this in our daily meals. It should not be difficult and we will show you in this issue.
In This Issue:
- Fats and Fiber - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for PWD (People With Diabetes"
- Must-Reads From Around the Web"
- Alerts I Can’t Resist To Send You"
- A Success Quotation of the Month"
- Dessert Recipe"
- Some Humour"
- Q&A: How Do I Know Which Butter to Buy?"
The Bad and Ugly Fats
Since we know that bad fats increase the risk of a heart disease, we have to limit the intake of this type of fat. What are they, you asked? Well let me tell you what the experts say when I researched the matter fully. They are saturated fats, hydrogenated fats and trans fats. Let’s take them one at a time so we will have a better understanding of them.
What Are Saturated Fats?
These fats usually come from animal sources. At room temperature, they appear solid like butter, milk fat, chicken skin, meat, pork skin, cheeses and ice cream. My research also shows that palm oils and coconut oils are something we have to be careful about. And this is where I am in a bit of quandary because on one hand, there are reports on the goodness of coconut oil.
What Are Hydrogenated Fats?
A chemical process turns vegetable oils that are liquid into something solid or semi-solid at room temperature. These are called hydrogenated fats. They are unnatural fats that are bad for our health. What they do is forced addition of hydrogen into omega-6 polyunsaturated oils. Why do they do this? Well to make them hard and less perishable to last longer on the shelf.
What Are Trans Fats?
Sometimes hydrogenation changes oils into trans fats. This is very unhealthy but unfortunately is the key ingredient in packaged foods, stick margarines, shortening, baked goods and fast foods. Limit the intake of these foods or avoid them altogether by getting foods that are trans fats free. There are more and more of these products in the market now.
What Are Good Fats?
For a long while, we were told that all fats are bad. Not anymore, for there are certainly good fats that can protect the body from heart disease. How does that happen? Well they help lower the cholesterol level, that’s why. But go easy on them because they have high calories and will raise the cholesterol level. These good fats are monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. Let’s take them one at a time.
What Are Monounsaturated Fats?
These are vegetable oils that at room temperature are in liquid form. If you use these instead of the saturated fats, you will come ahead in the diabetes diet game. Why? It’s because they help lower the bad cholesterol without lowering the good ones. Use olive oil and olives, canola oil and peanut oil and peanuts. Oh, and avocados also belong to the monounsaturated fats family.
What Are Polyunsaturated Fats?
These are vegetable oils that are also in the form of liquid at room temperature. You can replace those saturated fats, trans fats and hydrogenated fats with cotton seed and sunflower oils. Salad dressings and mayonnaise also contain polyunsaturated fats. So does soft tub margarines. They will help improve the ratio of the good and bad cholesterol.
What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?
These are from fish sources that are considered to be healthy for the heart. Why? It’s because they help lower both the triglycerides and cholesterol level. They also lower the blood clotting. So eat fish two or three times a week like salmon, mackerel, halibut, tuna, sea bass, sardines, herring and trout, Soybean and soy items and flax seeds, canola oil and walnuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
How About Fiber, How Much Do We Need to Eat For Optimal Health?
It depends on how old you are and your gender. A man who is fifty years and younger need 38 grams while those over 50 should consume 30 grams of fiber a day. As for women, those who are fifty years old and younger need 25 grams of fiber while those who are over fifty years old should consume 21 grams of fiber a day.
What Are the Best Sources of Fiber?
Here are the best sources of fiber. Fruits and vegetable are among them. That’s the reason our mothers literally force us to “Eat your veggies or you don’t get any dessert.” Whole grain products and nuts and seeds are also rich in fiber. So do peas, beans, and other legumes. I’m telling you it’s true because whenever I eat at Olive Garden where I have their soup full of beans, my tummy is celebrating.
What About Fiber Supplements?
If we don’t get enough fiber, what does one have to do?
Well, don’t fret because there are such things as fiber supplements. There are FiberCon, Citrucel and Metamucil but personally I don’t think these provide the nutrients that whole foods do. Of course some people with conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea and constipation may need to take fiber supplements. Ask your doctor if you need them.
These Are All Well and Good But How Do We Fit All These into Our Schedule?
Okay, I hear you so here are some tips: Start the day right with a good breakfast of cereal containing high fiber if you choose bran and whole grain. That will give you at least 5 grams or more of fiber.
Use whole-whole grain flour for baking and if you need to add baking powder, here’s the deal. For every 3 cups of flour, put in a teaspoon of baking powder. Or do what I do, for everything I bake or cook, I sneak in some flax seeds and chia seeds and my family has no idea what they’re eating. I get scared though when I see them wince a bit. But that’s how far it goes. They put up with me because they know I’m a health nut.
For the breads, buy one that lists whole grain as its first ingredient and check if it has at least 2 grams of dietary fiber.
Have a fruit for every meal.
Add some frozen or fresh vegetables into salads or soup. That reminds me to put some carrots into the mix because my eyesight is deteriorating.
Mix some legumes like peas, lentils and beans into the salad or soups.
Snacking on fresh fruits and vegetables add more grams of fiber into your daily schedule. So do nuts and dried fruits.
Reference: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/fiber/art-20043983?pg=2 .
Here’s a video on Fat and Fiber
2. Must-Reads from Around the Web
Don't Forget the Fiber in Your Low-Carb Diet
Almonds
Nuts and Your Heart: Eating Nuts for Heart Health
Dietary Fiber: Essential for a Healthy Diet
3. “Alerts I Can’t Resist To Send You
Stay away from the Skinny Fiber Scam!
List of Carbohydrates, Fats, and Fiber
Soluble Fiber Strikes a Blow to Belly Fat
10 Everyday Super Foods
4. A Success Quotation of the Month“
“Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them.” H. Jackson Brown
5. Dessert Recipe”
Fruit and Nut Bar
6. Some Humour - Let's laugh together at the joke below even if it's not funny. Laughter protects the heart, did you know that? A research at Loma Linda University study found that diabetic patients who have high cholesterol and high blood pressure were found to have improved their HDL which is the good cholesterol and lowered their levels of inflammatory compounds when they watched funny shows or movies for 30 minutes a day.
Mother‘s Day Jokes
1. Ron said he learned from his mother to always tell the truth . When he asked her why, his mother said, “Because I said so.“
2. She also told Ron how to behave by not acting like his father.
3. She also taught Ron the cycle of life by saying, “I brought you into this world; I can take you out again.”
4. A child wanted to buy his mother a present but he didn’t have money so when nobody was watching the flower shop, he rushed in and stole a wreath and gave it to his mother who saw that it says RIP.
5. A boy told his mother he wanted to give her everything to make her life easy: an electric stove, an electric washer and dryer, an electric toothbrush and an electric chair so she can rest easy.
7. Do you have a question or comment for the team?
Drop us a line at diabetes.alertatgmail.com. Put on the subject line “Diabetes Positive Approach” so no one can mistake it as spam. Write your questions or comment there.
You may see your question answered in an upcoming issue of Diabetes Positive Approach like the one below.
7. How Do I Know Which Butter to Buy?"
Answer: Some years ago there was a panic about saturated fat so butter lost its appeal and margarine became the king of the table. But soon enough studies revealed that margarine is like an imposter pretending to be what he is not. It was revealed that the trans fat it contains is worse than saturated fat so now there appears in the dairy section a creamy light yellow spreads made up of less than 80% oil.
Most of these spreads say they’re trans free or not hydrogenated oil but they still contain some because food marketers are allowed to say free if there is only .5 grams or less. Butter is better because it’s rich in vitamin A and contains D, E, and K2. Butter is rich minerals like manganese, zinc, chromium, selenium and copper.
How to Purchase Butter, that is the question. Raw butter is the best as they are from cows that are grass-fed. It is better to buy the organic variety. The next best butter to buy is the pasteurized butter from cows that are grass-fed. Then it is the regular pasteurized butter from the supermarkets which are healthier than the spreads and margarine.
8. Got something to say? Please write down your questions and comments in Facebook.
Just go to the https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Diabetes-Alert/22286671840 Just copy and paste that on your browser. Facebook will want you to join me first before you can send me a message.
Conclusion
There you have the fats and fiber you need to be as healthy as you ever want to be. But go easy at the start because if you rush into increasing your fiber intake fast you may end up bloated and have intestinal gas. And drink plenty of water, please, because fiber works well when it soaks up water.
Don’t be afraid of fats. Results from research have shown that people from all over the world eating diets high in fat and low carbohydrates are thriving. This is how our forefathers who are hunters and gatherers ate. They ate plant foods in season like fruits, roots and berries. The rest is meat, but not the ones full of chemicals. Rather they ate what they caught which are free-range, fed with grass and therefore healthy meat.
So don’t be afraid of fats when you eat like caveman’s diet. It’s when people started to switch to Western diet when the health started to fall apart. But don’t worry, we don’t have to go back to pre-Cambrian age to eat healthy because results have shown even modern people like the Villagers in Switzerland's isolated Loetschental Valley. They eat lots of milk, butter and cheese and seasonal treats of fruits and vegetables and they enjoy good health.
How about you? What works well for you? Let us know at the email address below the authors’ names.
Warm Regards,
Roger and Evelyn Guzman
diabetes.alertatgmail.com
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This newsletter is copyright 2014 Roger Guzman, M.D.
Remember that all these are for your information only. They do not take the place of the treatment and advice of health care professionals. You should continue to consult and work with them.
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