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Your Fill of Fiber

Getting the Nutrition You Need

By Jill Weisenberger

Donkersloot concurs that fiber-rich foods belong on every plate and in every lunchbox. "No one food has enough fiber, so it's important to have an unprocessed grain at each meal," she says. "Maybe oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich on whole-grain bread for lunch and corn for dinner." She also recommends a fruit or vegetable at every meal and snack. Get your kids used to good-for-you foods early. Remember that young children may need to see, touch, smell and taste a new food several times before fully accepting it.

Look to these same foods to halt creeping weight and ballooning waists. The fiber and water content of fruits, vegetables and cooked grains aids weight loss, says Dr. Barbara Rolls, professor of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University and author of The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan (Perennial, 2000). Increasing fiber-rich and water-rich fruits and vegetables will fill you up more, so you'll eat fewer calories overall.

Dieters don't have to be hungry to lose weight. In fact, she says, most people are surprised by the quantity of food they're allowed when they start substituting healthful, high-fiber foods for their usual food choices. Consider an afternoon snack. Both two cups of cantaloupe and 20 small pretzel twists (about 1/2 cup) weigh in at about 120 calories. In a bowl, the cantaloupe looks like more. It likely takes longer to eat, and it certainly has more nutrition – more vitamins A and C and the minerals potassium and magnesium. The cantaloupe serves up three grams of fiber, but the pretzels only 1.

Want to see more?

• Nature's Pharmacy: Revealing the Secrets of Holistic Health
• Happy Hearts: Eating for Heart Health
• Your Daily Dose of Vitamins: 5 Ways to Increase Vitamin Intake
• Talk about it!

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