High Fibre in the diet

[KatyB]

I struggle to include the 30g of fibre that we are advised to eat daily. Last night I watched 'Food Unwrapped' where they filmed the Hadza tribe in Tanzania. These people apparently have 40% more good bacteria in their gut than the rest of the world because they consume on average, 150g of fibre! Their diet consists of the honey comb (including the grubs) of the wild bee, roots of certain plants and the fruit of the Baobab tree which they make into a drink of pure fibre and vitamin C. Obviously this is only part of their diet but it has made me think just how unhealthy our western diet is. To increase our fibre levels it was suggested we could consume Chicory and Jerusalem Artichoke as these contain high levels of inulin. It made very interesting viewing.

[sandybrown]

How do you measure 30g of fibre in your diet?

WE are in UK, western world !!!, WE have to do with what we can get I am afraid.

[KatyB in reply to sandybrown]

That's a good question but I try to work out via internet re amount of fibre in fruit and veg, also on packets of the bean family etc, is printed amount of fibre per portion. Failing that, if fibre is so important do we or don't we take laxatives such as psyllium husk to increase our fibre intake?

[Markl60]

As part of your breakfast ritual start the day with a handful of walnuts. Extra fiber and good research showing heart benefits

[KatyB in reply to Markl60]

Thank you, I do sometimes eat walnuts but will make a point of eating them on a regular basis.

[Paul12]

Have you read amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/097067...

[KatyB in reply to Paul12]

Thank you, just had a quick look, no I've not read the book but am quite surprised that fibre is considered not to be as good for us as we thought. My own thoughts are that a healthy gut is better than storing a lot of toxins in the body which must happen if the gut is not working efficiently.

[Paul12]

The author has a website and videos etc but he certainly goes against everything I have read. Worth googling though

[KatyB in reply to Paul12]

Thank you, just had a look at one of his videos on YouTube but found it very confusing, as you say, it goes against everything we are told although I can understand people that suffer with bowel problems needing to limit their fibre intake.

[Cassiejo]

Hi I watched that programme as well. The Hadza tribe live in a very diverse eco system unlike us in the western world. We have chemicals sprayed on our foods which destroys good bacteria as does antibiotics. Our diet is more refined etc etc. The ‘experts’ suggest we get out more into gardens, woods fields (especially children) to get these friendly bacteria in our gut. Eat fermented foods if you can and certain fibres. It makes for interesting reading.

[sos007 Ambassador]

I'm copying below for you a reply I made to another poster which will provide you with guidance on diet and fiber intake:

Packaged foods are loaded with hidden sugar and salt. Any ingredient that has the suffix 'ose' or 'itol' is another form of sugar. In general, you should be on a whole foods, plant based diet. That means making foods from fresh ingredients while keeping animal proteins to only 3 Oz per day and loading up on vegetables, legumes and fruits. This will naturally increase your fiber intake and provide you with a more nutritionally complete diet.

I also eat 1/3 of a cup of Post 100% all-bran cereal using a small amount of unsweetened almond milk and cover it with 4 - 6 oz of fresh blueberries, every night before bedtime.

Humans are the only animals on earth other than primates, guinea pigs and fruit bats that do not synthesize their own vitamin c.

Having an orange a day will keep you from dying from extreme scurvy but the optimal level of vitamin c is likely between 4000 and 20,000 mg per day depending on your body weight, your lifestyle and state of health. You cannot get those levels of vitamin c from your diet.

The medical community, in general, is ignorant on the subject of vitamin supplementation.

In the U.S. alone, more than 120,000 people die annually due to the side effects of prescription medications. Virtually nobody has died from vitamins, yet the medical community freely continues to prescribe medications while ignoring vitamins.

There is a documented inverse correlation between vitamin c and cholesterol. I have been monitoring my bloodwork quarterly and can attest to the efficacy of all vitamins, especially vitamin C.

I had a triple bypass in March 2015. I was given a cocktail of drugs to take which caused all sorts of side effects. I made a major change in my diet and lifestyle, lost 40 lbs and came off of all medication including statins. I got my cholesterol levels to normal levels with diet and lifestyle changes alone. Then I began reading the work of Linus Pauling, Dr. Matthias Rath and Dr. Thomas Levy. That's when I started high doses of vitamin c and to my amazement, my LDL and non-HDL levels dropped an additional 17% to the optimal levels desired by my cardiologist.

If interested look up my posts. Lp(a) is supposedly a genetically predetermined biomarker, measured in a blood test and cannot be lowered by statins. So far mine has dropped by 32%! Most of which is accounted for by the vitamin C and lysine supplementation.

[KatyB in reply to sos007]

Thank you so much for your reply, I really think you should write a book as you've achieved so much of what so many of us have failed to do. And you make sense too!