How Much Fiber Do You Need A Day?

How to add fiber to your diet | Add fiber without gas

If you are adding fiber to your diet make sure that you add it slowly and increase your water intake. If you increase your fiber intake too quickly it may result in gas and stomach pains. In order to add fiber without gas just increase the amount of dietary fiber you eat daily by a few grams until you reach your recommended amount. Start slow, don’t go from 10 to 35 grams of fiber in one day. It is important that you give your intestinal system time to adjust, and adding too much fiber too quickly can cause discomfort/gas. It is important to drink more water when you add fiber to your diet because if you don’t, the fiber will act as a sponge and absorb the water in your body. This, in turn, can cause constipation, dehydration and bloating.

Low Calorie High Fiber Dessert

If you are on a high fiber diet you are probably wanting to treat yourself to something sweet without straying too far from your high fiber diet plan. Fruits are a good source of fiber so try making desserts with fresh fruit. A large pear has approximately 5 grams of fiber – a bit more than an apple. For a low calorie high fiber dessert why not bake a pear with a little butter and brown sugar (go to Cooks.com and type in baked pears – there are several different recipes). There are many low fat, low calorie butters on the market. You could also increase the fiber amount even more by stuffing the pear halves with prunes before baking. Prunes are also a good source of fiber.

Many berries are also high in fiber. Another low calorie high fiber dessert is a blackberry pie or cobbler. For an easy recipe just take some fresh blackberries and mash 1/2 of them. Place the mashed blackberries and the whole blackberries at the bottom of a greased pan and then top the berries with a white or yellow box cake mix (just the mix in the bag- don’t add the other cake ingredients). Just sprinkle/spread the dry cake mix on top of the berries. Then drizzle butter (you can use low calorie butter) on top of the cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees until the cake mix begins to get brown. This dessert taste great with some frozen yogurt on top.
If you have a favorite low calorie high fiber dessert that you would like to share with others please let us know. We would love to share your fiber recipe on our site.

Fiber for Weight Loss | High Fiber Diet

If you are looking to lose weight and are tired of trying all the fad diets only to lose weight and then gain it all back again, then maybe you should consider eating a low fat high fiber diet. Choosing to eat more fiber for weight loss can result in you shedding pounds, keeping the weight off, and improving your health at the same time.

It is amazing to me that more people are not on a low fat high fiber diet. It seems that a lot of people only think about increasing their dietary fiber intake when they are constipated. People obviously do not know about the benefits of fiber. Fiber and weight loss go hand and hand for many reasons.

First of all, fiber helps us stay full for longer. You see, soluble fiber slows down our digestive process(stomach emptying) and stays in our body for a longer time which keeps us full for a longer time. Fiber also binds to water which provides a sense of fullness in the stomach after eating. Second of all, most high fiber foods are also low in calories and fat. If you focus your meals around high fiber foods than you will also be able to better control your caloric intake. Everyone knows that in order to lose weight you need to burn off more calories than you consume. A high fiber diet is also good for weight loss because high fiber foods usually require a person to chew more. When you are required to chew more you slow down your rate of eating and give your stomach time to tell your brain that it is full. Last of all, fiber is basically calorie-free due to the fact that our bodies do not absorb fiber.

All in all, using fiber for weight loss is an excellent and healthy way to lose weight and keep it off.