High fiber food is essential to a healthy diet.

Fiber helps reduce cholesterol, manage blood sugar and prevents type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Plus, it's important in healthy weight loss and weight management.

High fiber food also promotes regularity and helps reduce the risk of hemorrhoids, diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

Here's the Problem

No matter how important fiber may be, most people in the U.S. aren't getting enough.

The recommendation is 30 to 40 grams a day and the average American only gets about 10 daily grams. That's not anywhere near enough for optimum health.

Which is why 4 million suffer from constipation and spend over $725 million on laxatives each year. They're just not getting the daily fiber they need for regularity.

And neither are millions of others in the U.S. who suffer from high blood sugar, high cholesterol and many other serious health conditions.

Here's How Fiber Works

Fiber is the part of fruits, vegetables and other plants from the list of high fiber foods that can't be digested or absorbed. It's usually classified as being either soluble or insoluble, depending on whether or not it dissolves in water.

Take an apple, for example. The skin is made of insoluble fiber, which works like a brush to help move food through the digestive system. The apple flesh is made of soluble fiber, which acts more like a sponge, helping to soften and add bulk to the stool.

Whole grains, bran, nuts and many vegetables are good sources of insoluble fiber, while oats, peas, beans, apples, oranges and carrots are good examples of soluble fiber.

Here are the SAD Facts

The National Institutes of Health recommends whole grain breads (rather than white or enriched bread) and five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

But, on any given day, 50% of Americans eat no fruit and 25% eat no vegetables.

The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) sadly consists mainly of refined white bread, colas, chips, pizza, cheese, meat, white rice and pasta, plus other processed foods containing little to no fiber. It's no wonder so many Americans have constipation problems.

Half of the U.S. population over 50 years old have hemorrhoids and millions more suffer from diabetes, high cholesterol and colon cancer.

Here's What You Can Do

The solution is simple. Eat more foods from the high fiber food chart 

For breakfast have berries (rather than sugar) on oatmeal. Or fix a bowl of fresh fruit and plain yogurt, sprinkled with crunchy, unsweetened whole grain cereal.

For lunch have a big fresh salad with romaine rather than iceberg lettuce. Add raw broccoli, cauliflower, red peppers or other nutritious veggies from my list of vegetables. If you have a sandwich, make sure it's on whole grain or sprouted bread.

In the evening include a couple of colorful vegetables with your dinner and substitute fresh fruit from my fruit list for dessert rather than fiberless cake, cookies or ice cream.

Fiber is essential to your health and it can work to your benefit. So give it a chance!

Copyright © Moss Greene. All rights reserved.

Moss Greene is a widely published journalist in the field of health, nutrition and fitness and the Nutrition Editor 

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