Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Before you fibermaxx, know these tips

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Before you fibermaxx, know these tips · Silver FM 100.6

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The last time Antonio May's senior heard from his son,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: it was in a note the sixteen year old left
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in the family's garage.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: He told me he was don't make me proud.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Antonio Junior left home to join a protest in Seattle.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: A week later, he was shot and killed.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: There. I mean some arethmaid justice from a son.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Listen to We Keep Us Safe on the embedded podcast
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from NPR.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, everybody, it's Mariel.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: When I say the word fiber, what do you think
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: about maybe pooping? You were probably taught that fiber keeps
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: you regular, and it does do that, but also so
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  Speaker 2: much more. NPR Science correspondent Maria Goodoy says fiber is
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: kind of like the Peter Parker of food.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: You think it's kind of this nerdy new tramp, but
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: it's actually really secretly a dietary superhero.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a superhero because this carbohydrate, which occurs naturally in plants,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: has a ton of health benefits.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: It lowers cholesterol, it helps regulate blood sugar levels, it
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: keeps your hunger in check, and it is the primary
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: food source for the trillions of microbes that live in
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  Speaker 4: our guts, and those microbes play really a critical role
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  Speaker 4: in so many aspects of good health.
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  Speaker 2: The problem is we often don't get enough fiber in
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  Speaker 2: our diet. That's true for an estimated ninety five percent
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  Speaker 2: of Americans. So let's change that. On today's episode of Life, Kit,
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  Speaker 2: Maria and I talk all things fiber, how it works
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  Speaker 2: in our bodies, the best ways to get it, whether
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  Speaker 2: you should take supplements, and how to avoid some of
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  Speaker 2: the uncomfortable side effects that can come with upping.
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  Speaker 1: Your fiber intake.
• 1:45
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  Speaker 5: of journalism that we the public rely on. Please support
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• 2:08
  Speaker 3: After a DNA test revealed a family secret, questions started swirling.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Where am I in the universe?
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: And I had a desperate need to find out.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: The truth brought dozens of strangers together the secret family
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  Speaker 3: of a fertility doctor. Listen now to the Sunday story
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: from the up first podcast on the NPR app.
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: This season, on Planet Money Summer School, we go to China,
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: one of the world's biggest economy, and what we learned.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Is Americans are crazy, Chinese are crazy. These are two
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: countries full of these crazy hustlers.
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: The US and China are more alike than you might think.
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: On Planet Money Summer School, a strange lesson about success,
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: how to handle the downsides of progress. Listen on the
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like, for a long time, I just thought
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  Speaker 2: fiber was something that was kind of like a room
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  Speaker 2: sweeping your digestive food through your intestines. It does play
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  Speaker 2: that role, right, but it also does all this other
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  Speaker 2: stuff right.
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  Speaker 4: There's actually a huge body of research that shows diets
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  Speaker 4: high in fiber boost health and lots of ways. For example,
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  Speaker 4: there was this big review of nearly two hundred studies
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  Speaker 4: and dozens of clinical trials, and it found diets rich
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  Speaker 4: in fiber were linked to a lower risk of major
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  Speaker 4: health problems like obesity, type two diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease,
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  Speaker 4: even dying prematurely from any cause.
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  Speaker 2: Do we know why it's so beneficial, Like how it's
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  Speaker 2: working in our bodies.
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  Speaker 4: One of the big things that scientists have learned over
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  Speaker 4: the last two decades is that one of the reasons
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  Speaker 4: it's so important health is that fiber is the primary
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  Speaker 4: food source for those microbes in our gut, and those microbes,
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  Speaker 4: we've learned, play a critical role in regulating not just
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  Speaker 4: in our guts but throughout our whole bodies. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: they influence health in everything from immunity really important to immunity,
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  Speaker 4: you know, allergies, heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, even mental health.
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  Speaker 4: And scientists are still untangling those mechanisms, but it's pretty
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  Speaker 4: clear that they play a critical role, and fiber is
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  Speaker 4: the primary food source for these microbes, especially a type
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  Speaker 4: of fiber called prebiotic fiber, which is the kind of
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  Speaker 4: fiber that these microbes can ferment.
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  Speaker 2: Let's linger here for a second on the gut microbiome,
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  Speaker 2: because this is so fascinating. Could you explain what the
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  Speaker 2: gut microbiome actually is? What is the gut and what
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  Speaker 2: are these microbes?
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  Speaker 4: Okay, so your gut is your gastrinetestinal system, you know,
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  Speaker 4: so includes your stomach and your small and large intestines,
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  Speaker 4: which you know, the large intestine are colon and it
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  Speaker 4: is home. Especially your large intestine is home to this
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  Speaker 4: community very diverse trillions, trillions of very diverse microbes, and
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  Speaker 4: those microbes play a critical role in influencing hell throughout
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  Speaker 4: your body. And those microbes are adapted to work with
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  Speaker 4: different fibers. So that's one reason why you want to
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  Speaker 4: eat a diversity of fiber in your diet because I
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  Speaker 4: like to think of them kind of like a team
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  Speaker 4: of builders building a house, right, Like you want to
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  Speaker 4: have your gut is the house. And so some microbes
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  Speaker 4: are like plumbers, and some are electricians, and some of
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  Speaker 4: them are you know, masonry experts, and so they all
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  Speaker 4: need different tools, and the fibers are those different tools
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  Speaker 4: to build different things. So you don't want to rely
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  Speaker 4: on one kind of fiber. You want to eat lots
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  Speaker 4: of different fiber from foods. But what we do know
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  Speaker 4: from research is more diverse types of microbes living in
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  Speaker 4: your gut equals better health.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like a lot of people have heard of
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  Speaker 2: taking probiotics, either in a pill or through what they
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  Speaker 2: eat kombucha or kim she something like that yogurt in
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  Speaker 2: order to help their gut microbiome. But fiber is the
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  Speaker 2: other element here, right, Like fiber is called a prebiotic.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so both prebiotics and probiotics are great for the
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  Speaker 4: health of your gut microbiome. Probiotics are foods or supplements
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  Speaker 4: that contain live microorganisms that have a proven health benefit,
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  Speaker 4: so think foods like kombucha or yogurt. Prebiotics are the
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  Speaker 4: food or fuel for those good microbes in your gut.
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  Speaker 4: All known prebiotics are fiber, but not all fibers are prebiotic.
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  Speaker 4: So prebiotic fibers are those that gut microbes forer meant
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  Speaker 4: to produce chemical messengers that go throughout your body. But
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  Speaker 4: not all fibers are easily fermentable by microbes. But you know,
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  Speaker 4: just because microbes can't break them down doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 4: they're not beneficial. For example, cellulose is a type of
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  Speaker 4: fiber found in foods like celery and gut microbes don't
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  Speaker 4: do a great job of breaking it down, but we
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  Speaker 4: have lots of research that shows that cellulose can help
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  Speaker 4: keep you regular, which I think we can all agree
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  Speaker 4: is pretty important.
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  Speaker 2: The human body is amazing, I know, right, amazing, It
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  Speaker 2: really really is.
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  Speaker 4: It's fascinating and I'll tell you the reason I got
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  Speaker 4: interested in fiber years ago was I thought I was
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  Speaker 4: eating super healthy. I was having salads every day and whatnot,
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  Speaker 4: and I read an article about the benefits of fiber
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  Speaker 4: and I got curious, like, I wonder how much fiber
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  Speaker 4: I eat in a day, And I started tracking it,
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  Speaker 4: and it actually wasn't that much, because you know, so
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  Speaker 4: fibers found in plant based foods, and I was eating
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  Speaker 4: a lot of salads. But the thing is, like iceberg
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  Speaker 4: lettuce doesn't really have a lot of fiber in it.
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  Speaker 4: So I started sort of targeting high fiber foods in
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  Speaker 4: my diet. And so one thing I'll do nowadays is
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  Speaker 4: like I'll sprinkle tablespoing Cheeka seeds on my yogurt, and
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  Speaker 4: that one tablespoonachia seeds has four grams of fiber, and
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  Speaker 4: I think you'd have to eat like a truckload of
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  Speaker 4: iceberg lettuce to even get anywhere near that. Wow. But
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  Speaker 4: I know, or a cup of raspberries or blackberries have
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  Speaker 4: eight grams of fiber, which is a lot, and those
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  Speaker 4: can be expensive.
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  Speaker 2: I was gonna say, maybe that's why they're so expensive, right, right,
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  Speaker 2: But actually you.
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  Speaker 4: Could just buy them frozen, right and like throw them
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  Speaker 4: in a smoothie, and they're a lot cheaper when they're frozen.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, The main issue I have with raspberries and blackberries,
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  Speaker 2: which also have a lot of fiber, is like they
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  Speaker 2: get moldy before I can even look at them.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, No, I eat them up first, because
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  Speaker 4: if I'm paying like six bucks for a little pint
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  Speaker 4: or whatever, I'm gonna eat them right away.
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  Speaker 2: Well, how much how much fiber should we be getting
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  Speaker 2: a day?
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  Speaker 4: So the formula is basically fourteen grams of fiber for
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  Speaker 4: every one thousand calories you eat, and that translates usually
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  Speaker 4: for women something around twenty five grams of fiber, and
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  Speaker 4: for men it's something like thirty eight grams of fiber.
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  Speaker 4: But it's in a way it's mood because the vast
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  Speaker 4: majority of Americans get nowhere near that. Less than ten
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  Speaker 4: percent of Americans eat the daily amount of fiber they're
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  Speaker 4: supposed to. Most the average, I think is something like
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  Speaker 4: sixteen grams a day. So that's where, like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: maybe being a little more conscious about what you eat
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  Speaker 4: can help without being obsessive, but really what you want
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  Speaker 4: to think about doing is eating the rainbow, which is
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  Speaker 4: something you've probably heard a million times from like registered
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  Speaker 4: dietitians say it all the time. And that just means
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  Speaker 4: eating a variety of plant based foods that are rich
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  Speaker 4: in fibers. So like sweet potatoes or avocados very rich
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  Speaker 4: in fiber, asparagus and artichoke, you know, brown rice can help.
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  Speaker 4: Lentils and other beans, navy beans, black beans, et cetera,
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  Speaker 4: very high in fiber and not expensive at all. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: I eat lentil soup, you know, at least half of
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  Speaker 4: the week.
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  Speaker 2: Do you count your fiber every day or periodically?
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  Speaker 1: I do, but that's.
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  Speaker 4: Because I'm a little bit obsessed with fiber. But I
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  Speaker 4: don't think the average person needs to at all. Really,
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: if you just sort of trying to eat a variety
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  Speaker 4: of plant based foods, you know, like fruits, vegetables, and
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  Speaker 4: obviously whole grains, lagoons like all of that can just
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  Speaker 4: help you get closer to your goal.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what is the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber?
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  Speaker 2: Because I feel like those terms are a little confusing
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure whether I need to be keeping track.
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  Speaker 4: No, I don't really think you do for the average
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  Speaker 4: person who's got a million things going on and isn't
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  Speaker 4: kind of a fanatic like I am. I don't think,
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  Speaker 4: so it's really easy to get really in the weeds
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  Speaker 4: pretty fast when it comes to fiber. But basically, soluble
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  Speaker 4: fiber means it can dissolve in water. Soluble fibers bind
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  Speaker 4: with water and kind of turn into this gell like
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  Speaker 4: consistency that slows digestion and that can be helpful can
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  Speaker 4: lower glucose levels and blood cholesterol levels. Again, like chis
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  Speaker 4: dope brand, lentils, nuts and seeds, apples and pears havevaluble fiber.
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  Speaker 4: Insoluble fiber means it doesn't dissolve in water, and that's
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  Speaker 4: helpful because it can help food move through your digestive
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  Speaker 4: system and add bulk to your stool and help keep
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: you regular and prevent constipation. So you can think of
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: foods like quinoa or brown rice, kale, walnuts that falls
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: into that category. And the thing that's important to remember
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  Speaker 4: is that different kinds of plant foods have different kinds
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  Speaker 4: of fiber in them, and they're all important to health
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  Speaker 4: in different ways. So again that's why you want to
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: eat the rainbow. You know, eat lots of different fruits
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: and vegetables and whole grains, nuts and seeds and beans,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: just to make sure you're getting you know, a variety
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  Speaker 4: of fibers in your diet.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Right, So is it ever a good idea to get
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: fiber from a supplement or a pill?
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  Speaker 4: Very good question. Every researcher I've spoken to told me
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  Speaker 4: your best bet is to get fiber from a variety
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  Speaker 4: of plant based foods.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: La la la.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: I've said it in a million times now, But that's
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: really for a couple of reasons. One is, you know,
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  Speaker 4: when you eat fiber rich berries or sweet potatoes, you're
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  Speaker 4: also getting all the vitamins and minerals and phytoonutrients in
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  Speaker 4: those foods, so not just the fibers, so they're good
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  Speaker 4: for you in multiple ways. But another reason is the
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: fiber used in supplements, it's been highly purified, it to
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  Speaker 4: simpler structure than the fiber that sort of bound up
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  Speaker 4: in complex structures naturally inside of plant foods. And so
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: these simpler fibers tend to get fermented faster by gut microbes,
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  Speaker 4: but that means they might not travel all the way
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  Speaker 4: down the full length of your large intestine and feed
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  Speaker 4: the microbes there too, So basically they might not reach
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  Speaker 4: all the microbes that need it throughout your gut. That said,
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: if you don't get enough, fiber, supplements are probably helpful.
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  Speaker 4: They just don't seem to be as helpful as getting
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: your fiber through plant based foods.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I noticed too that, Like I was taking fiber
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: supplements for a while, and then once I realized how
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: much fiber we needed day I looked at the label
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  Speaker 2: and it was like I did take five capsules to
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: get two grams of fiber. I was like, this is wild,
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  Speaker 2: Like what is even in these? It was like caram
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: mostly caramel coloring.
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  Speaker 4: My advice is like, eat a bowl of black bean soup,
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: right ental soap, right, it's gonna be tastier hopefully.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So if you're someone who does not eat a
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  Speaker 2: lot of fiber right now, where do you start? Because
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  Speaker 2: if you if you start really abruptly and like crank
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  Speaker 2: it up, you could get gas and bloating and just
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: like gastrointestrial distress right right right.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: And I think that's a really important point. Like, if
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: you don't eat a lot of fiber, I would definitely
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: say the keys to start slowly, just be very gradual
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: about increasing your fiber intake. So, for instance, if you
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: like to eat white bread, maybe you know, the first
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: week you're trying to increase your intake, switch out one
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: serving with whole grain bread and the second, you know,
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: second week, do two servings until you've done all your
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: servings a whole grain instead of white bread. The other
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: thing is drink lots of water because this can help
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: the fiber bind it prevents it from hardening. And you
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: can try cooking vegetables or eating fruits without the skins
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: or seeds that you know can help make foods a
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: little less likely to cause gas. One thing you might
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: want to do is if you're eating more foods with
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: fiber and noticing gas, maybe take note of which foods
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: cause symptoms. You might want to adjust your diet if
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: you're particularly sensitive to something like, for instance, I've said
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: I'm a fiber fanatic, but I've realized i got to
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: moderate my chia seed intake. Like one tablespoon with my
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: yogurt is fine. Two tablespoons and I'm in trouble later.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: That's just me personally, you know, totally yeah. And the
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: other thing, you know, I find that taking a walk
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: after meals can also be helpful with gas and bloating discomfort,
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: and so yeah, just moving a little bit afterward and
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: it can help with digestion and help release some of
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: that gas.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: All right, well I am, I'm like kind of pumped
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: now to go eat fiber all day.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: Yay, yeah, but like do it in moderation.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, thank you so much. This has been great.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: It has been my pleasure as your official NPR Fiber fanatic.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: One last thing, would you consider rating and reviewing us?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: It helps us grow the show and we'd love to
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: know what you think. Here's a review that I liked
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: from listener F Walter, eight nineteen. Having learned many of
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: these lessons the hard way, I recommend Life Kit instead,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: and for all the lessons they cover that I never learned.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Thanks better late than never, too true, F Walter. Leave
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: us a review in your podcast app right now. This
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie Schneider
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and edited by Sylvie Douglas. Malka Greeb is our digital editor,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: and our visuals editor is CJ.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Rikalon.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Meggan Kin is our senior supervising editor, and Lauren Gonzalez
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Tagle and Margaret Serino. Engineering support comes from Jimmy Keeley
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: and Sina Lefredo. I'm Mariel Segarta. Thanks for listening.
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