Where’s the Fiber? (Video)

Which two of these foods have the highest amount of fiber per serving?

1. Lettuce
2. Celery
3. Lima beans
4. Spinach
5. Raspberries

Correct answer:

1. c) Lima beans
2. e) Raspberries

What you should know: 

Most of us have learned that food contains three types of macronutrients—that is, components of food that we should consume in relatively large amounts to stay healthy. These are of course carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Sometimes water is included as a macronutrient, because it’s something else we consume in relatively large quantities that is necessary for survival. But most of us did not learn that there’s a fifth major component of food, also necessary in relatively large quantities to maintain health. That’s fiber.

The technical meaning of fiber depends on whether it’s coming from a botanist, a chemist, or a nutritionist, but the simple answer is that  fiber is the parts of plants that human digestive organs can’t break down.

Why is it not widely accepted knowledge that fiber is a vital macronutrient? Possibly because we can’t digest it, so it doesn’t directly provide nutrition to our cells. But it does have two very important functions.  First, it provides bulk in our food that makes it easier for our muscles in our intestines to move it alone. And second, it can be digested by the trillions of microorganism that make their home in our gut, and those microorganisms themselves produce highly useful nutrients.

These benefits help explain why current research tells us that diets higher in fiber reduce risk for chronic diseases such as cardiac disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer, and in fact reduce the risk of death itself.

We also know that most people aren’t consuming nearly enough fiber.  Modern adults in the U.S. get 10 to 15 grams per day, about half the amount recommended by the FDA.

If you were getting less than half of the carbohydrates, fats, protein, or water that you need for health, the effects would be obvious, and the diagnosis would be malnutrition, starvation or dehydration. Fiber doesn’t get the respect it should have for at least two reasons. First, the effects of fiber malnourishment aren’t immediately obvious and are not easily connected to their cause. Second, natural fiber is present in quality real foods, much less so in processed foods, and definitely not in the ultra-processed foods that make up most of the U.S. food supply.

So if you are charting a course to a healthier life, you’ll want to give natural fiber the respect it deserves, as one of the five most important things you can consume each day, whether it’s called a macronutrient or not. Lima bean and raspberry salad, anyone?