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Don't Change Your Diet - Just Add Fiber! Here's How to Make it Work · Doctor Turned Health Coach

• 0:21
  Today, we're going to dive a little bit deeper into fiber.
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  So many times you've heard me say that adding fiber to your food is much more
• 0:30
  important than removing something else, like Twinkies or your steak or your greasy burrito.
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  I'd much rather you add fiber to your food than try to figure out,
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  oh, should I eat this, should I not eat that.
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  But how do you add fiber? How do you actually make it happen?
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  What does that even mean to add more fiber to your diet?
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  So maybe a good way for me to explain to you what fiber is, it is the carbohydrates,
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  it is the sugars, essentially, that are not absorbed by your body directly, right?
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  They don't turn into calories. So all the fiber you eat can do a lot of great
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  things for your health, but it won't add calories to you.
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  And that's the beauty of fiber, because you can eat a lot more volume,
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  You can snack on a bunch of stuff that has fiber, but you're not really going to gain any weight.
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  On top of that, it has all these other benefits when you eat fiber.
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  We're not going to get into the details of soluble versus insoluble because
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  all fiber is good for you.
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  But some of it, some fiber is going to be a little bit more easy to digest.
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  Classic example might be onions and broccoli.
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  If you have those, you might feel really bloated and crampy.
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  And then if you have fiber from beans
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  or from whole wheat or grains you
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  might actually be okay and then of course somebody else has beans and they're
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  you know turning into a balloon the fiber you eat goes as once you chew it it
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  goes down into your gut and pretty much what it does is it feeds your healthy
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  bacteria and it creates a very healthy lining and coating.
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  Inside your intestines.
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  It also adds a little bit of bulk to your stool, which makes it move through
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  the gut much easier, preventing hemorrhoids, preventing constipation, helping with diarrhea,
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  acid reflux, all of those things.
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  The fiber itself is digested and eaten by the bacteria, the bacteria that are inside your gut.
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  Will eat this fiber and they will create something called short-chain fatty
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  acids, SCFA is kind of the nerdy term, and a bunch of other stuff.
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  And these things can help with blood pressure, with dementia prevention.
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  It can help with overall cardiovascular health, blood sugar control, a lot of other things.
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  Because that lining on your intestine now prevents the excess absorption of
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  glucose. So if you have something that's very high sugar or even something that's
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  very high in saturated fat, well, guess what?
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  The fiber that coated your stomach, your intestines, is very protective.
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  So now the main topic of this podcast, of course, is how do you add fiber?
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  What do you do? What are some easy ways to add a little bit more fiber?
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  Now, if you're a novice, if you're the white starchy potato and white wonder
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  bread kind of person, adding any fiber is going to turn into a colonic disaster.
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  So we got to do it slow. We got to do it very, very slow.
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  Usually what I recommend is, hey, take your white rice and just put a little
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  bit of, add a little bit of brown rice to it. That's it.
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  Just cook a little bit of brown rice and white rice and mix them together.
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  Now, if you like something like quinoa, quinoa is a little bit less starchy,
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  has quite a bit more fiber, easier to digest, usually doesn't cause any bloating.
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  So that's what I recommend.
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  When it comes to breads, breads are a great place. Crackers and bread, right?
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  And bread, of course, I mean whether it's a sourdough, whether it's a tortilla,
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  whether it's, you know, the little, what are they called, dinner rolls.
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  Any of these can be made with a
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  little bit more fiber so of course in mass
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  production what they do is they get the white flour which
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  is shelf stable and they just add a little bit of bran to it
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  or wheat bran to it which is that outer coating of the grain alternatively of
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  course you could just take the entire grain the whole grain 100% whole wheat
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  as we call it and you grind that up and you make your bread with that now i
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  make all of my bread with 100% whole grain because I just don't see a reason to buy.
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  Ultra processed refined flour which
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  is purely starchy white flour with a bunch
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  of folate and iron and zinc and all this other stuff added
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  it that doesn't make sense to me not in our
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  current health care system and food system where we have access to really good
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  stuff so why should i eat something ultra processed when i can eat something
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  natural but adding a little bit of that whole wheat or a little bit of bran
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  to the bread will make the bread just slightly more whole grain slightly more
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  whole wheat. And that's a great place for you to start.
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  Just buy breads that have a little bit more fiber in them. And you can just read the back.
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  Take your favorite bread, look at the back of it, and it'll say it's got,
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  you know, two grams of fiber.
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  And then look at another one. It says it got four grams of fiber. Great.
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  That four gram fiber, that's the one you want to go with. And you can slowly
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  increase that because for a lot of people in the beginning,
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  adding fiber to their meals is not pleasant, both from the digestion perspective
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  and also because that fiber tends to not taste that good.
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  It makes the food a little bit more earthy.
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  It'll taste a little bit more nutty.
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  You just may not be accustomed to that. It actually has a little bit of a bitter
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  flavor, which is why 100% whole wheat, usually people will add a little bit
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  of honey or brown sugar or sugar to the bread dough. That actually makes it a lot more tasty.
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  So those are the best ways. Now, of course, we have vegetables.
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  So if you're accustomed to eating, you know, starchy white potatoes,
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  you could just add some other vegetables, right?
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  You could do sweet potatoes. You could do some cauliflower broccoli.
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  You could do some asparagus and bok choy that you can saute.
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  All of those are going to give you just a little bit of a better,
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  higher fiber content, but still very easy to digest.
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  And of course, you should always be chewing your food, right?
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  That's quite important.
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  Finally, I'll give you one quick trick. Beano, B-E-A-N-O, is those little capsules that you can buy.
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  If you're super sensitive to fiber and getting flatulence, getting intestinal
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  gas, I highly recommend using Beano. Beano is a great way to help with that
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  kind of bloating and digestion problems.
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  Now, chewing your food really well is also very effective.
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  Not eating a large volume and not drinking water at the same time can also be effective.
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  So if you eat a ton of food at the same time, your stomach gets really big,
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  that's going to create flatulence and gas.
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  If you drink a lot of water while you're eating, that can also do it.
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  So usually have your liquids beforehand. That's the recommendation.
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  And try to chew your food as best as you
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  can those are the best ways to start adding fiber
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  to your diet now if just for fun go to
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  your favorite ai app or chat gpt or whatever and
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  take some photos of your food upload it to it and say hey
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  how much fiber did i get and here you can describe your food a little bit
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  so it knows so it has some context see how
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  much fiber you got and now take a super high
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  fiber meal as a as a comparison and see
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  how much more fiber you get that's a great way to see like hey am i really you
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  know moving down the right track or not and one
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  more thing that actually i just discussed with
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  a coaching client so he likes to go and
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  get this one type of salmon that comes
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  with mashed potatoes and every time he goes he takes a photo of it and sends
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  it to me i'm like you know let's get
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  a little bit more fiber in that and what we actually decided
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  because he usually goes to the same restaurant every friday to go get this dish
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  i just told him hey ask the ask the staff if they have any baked vegetables
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  on the side and oh my god they gave him this beautiful side plate of baked vegetables
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  that had it had asparagus it had.
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  Cauliflower it had eggplant and it had a couple of like really nicely roasted
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  tomatoes and onion and onion so what an amazing way to add a little bit more fiber to your diet.