Yeah, You Get Enough Fiber. Sure…

I hear it time and time again – usually from friends and family! “Oh, I don’t need a supplement. I get enough from eating a healthy diet.”

Well, I know some really atypical folks, it seems. Because it turns out only 14% of us eat enough fruits and vegetables, according to USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-29-fruits-veggies-high-school-kids_N.htm?csp=34).

Now if I were to believe what people tell me, it’s about reversed. Nearly 90% of the folks I talk to are convinced they eat a diet rich enough in fiber, nutrients, prebiotics, etc. that they need no supplements.

BZZZZZT! Wrong answer. No soup for you!

I KNOW many of these people and KNOW what they eat… So I call “nonsense” on that.

Here’s the simple truth: I don’t think even one single adult in this country is unaware that eating fruits and veggies is healthy and we generally need more. We are not UNAWARE of this issue, we’re just (for the most part) UNWILLING to fix it!

And I’m no exception either. I’m pretty health- and nutrition-aware myself. Our family has actually moved to eating vegetarian at least 5 days a week. And even at that, I’d say our diet is “okay” not “great.” I eat healthy most of the time, then “unwilling” kicks in and kills it with a weak moment when I slam down a double-bacon-cheeseburger with fries at 5 Guys.

Even more worrisome to me are those who have bought into the “health marketing” of “enriched” or “enhanced” foods – you know, when they take what amounts to a candy bar, jam some fiber in it, and say it’s a “health bar.” This is the group that says “I know I get enough fiber because I eat a {Brand F} fiber bar every morning?” or “I eat Brand Y Yogurt + Fiber for breakfast.”
Oh really? So that fiber bar… that’s Brand F bar with the 30g of high-fructose corn syrup and chocolate-icing swirls on top, right? And the yogurt is the same Brand Y with the chemical artificial sweetener, artificial red dye and 1/3 your RDA of sodium, isn’t it? Or maybe you meant you eat Brand Q’s instant oatmeal with even more sugar in it? Oh yeah, THAT’s the foundation of a healthy diet, my friend… I could go on. There are far, far too many examples. Seems like we’ll do about anything to avoid what we know we _should_ do: eat Fruits, Vegetables, Whole Grains, Fish, Lean Meats, etc..

The marketing of fat- sugar- and salt-laden foods as “healthy” just because they have some vitamins, fiber, etc. shot into them genuinely annoys me. Don’t even start me on vitamin-enriched soda… It annoys me because it is basically nothing more or less than actively “fooling” folks who are actually TRYING to eat right. Shame on the folks that do it!

Honestly, I’m not even criticizing everyday folks too much here! It’s tough – really tough – to truly eat a good, balanced, healthy diet all day every day. It takes more time to prepare fresh food, it takes commitment to change ingrained (poor) eating habits. It’s often more expensive to eat fresh foods than buy the the “box-o-rice” dinner. Children complicate it further “But they can have chicken nuggets and fries at Jimmy’s house!!” And it surely doesn’t help when someone’s blasting ads at you trying to convince you that a candy bar is healthy, or a yogurt with the entire amount of sugar you should eat in a day is “good for you.”

Mind you, I’m not making excuses for the folks who breakfast on McEggs, McBacon, and McDonut, have a chili-cheese-dog with chili-cheese-fries for lunch and deep fried ‘frankenstein’ chicken strips for dinner, and claim they ate healthy because they had a baked potato for dinner (with sour cream, butter and salt, mind you). There comes a point where you have effectively said “I’m not even going to try.” And the real shame of it is, I understand why people don’t even try (for all the reasons noted above)

I’m talking about those of us really trying to do the right thing, but getting caught up in the whirl – the kids getting ads for the sugar-fried-fat-dye#5 snacks that are shoved at them night and day, the busy day where dinner is late and “just order chinese” is all too tempting. And the fact that eating out healthily at anything but a specialized “health” restaurant is all-but-impossible.

And then there’s the specific issue of Prebiotics, which you knew I had to bring up, right?

Let me be pretty clear… Unless you regularly (as in daily) eat a very-dense prebiotic source like Chicory Root or Dandelion Greens, you’re almost certainly NOT getting enough prebiotic fiber. Or, if you are, you’re getting way to much “load” of sugar, calories, carbs and such along with it. It’s simply math: If something contains 1/5 your daily serving of prebiotic fiber, 1/2 your daily calories and 2/3 your daily carbs, getting your full daily prebiotic from that will overload you on the others!

While many many foods have prebiotic fiber in them, very few have enough ‘density’ to offset the other factors. Wheat is a great example. Wheat has prebiotics. Most Americans get most of the prebiotics they eat from wheat (though not enough). But using wheat as your primary source of prebiotics doesn’t work! If you get a full serving of prebiotics from wheat, you will be FAR over your carbs for the day, plain and simple.

And in any case, I can virtually guarantee that you’re not getting enough full-spectrum prebiotics, since most food sources provide mostly inulin – a longer-chain prebiotic that mostly nourishes only the left side of your colon. That’s why considering Prebiotin prebiotic fiber supplement is certainly well worth a few moment’s thought: Full spectrum prebiotics, fiber, and in our new formulas, heart, bone and regularity enhancing all-natural ingredients.

Okay, enough ranting. Just understand this: When you say “I don’t need {Prebiotin, Fiber, Multivitamin, Fish Oil, etc} supplement because I eat a healthy diet,” there is a reason I shake my head slowly side to side with a doubtful look on my face…

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Tags: fiber, prebiotin

This entry was posted on October 9, 2009 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Food and Supplements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.