We have all heard that fiber is one of the major components of a healthy diet. Both the Surgeon General and the American Dietetic Association recommend consuming 20-25 grams of fiber daily. However, no one seems to be heeding this advice. According to studies, the average fiber intake in America is only around 12 -15 grams a day, and only about 5% of Americans eat enough fiber.
What keeps people from switching to a high fiber diet is the fear of experiencing gastric problems such as cramps, gas, bloat, or bowel disorders. These may be avoided by not immediately going on an all-out fiber diet but by gradually adding fibrous foods to your diet over a period of time. It is also necessary to increase your fluid intake as you increase your fiber consumption. Eight glasses of water a day is the recommended intake. A high fiber diet provides the following health benefits: promotes regular elimination, eliminates the need for harmful laxatives, decreases hemorrhoids and colon cancer, aids in the maintenance of normal healthy body weight, normalizes blood sugar and reduces the risk of diabetes, lowers cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.
According to Brenda Watson, New York Times best-selling author and an authority on optimum nutrition and digestion, natural detoxification methods and herbal internal cleansing, there are some fiber rich foods like the starches found in vegetables, grains, legumes and indigestible sugars, that cause bloating. The body is not able to properly absorb these foods thus when they pass through the colon, bacteria causes them to ferment creating intestinal gas.
In addition, it is also important to pay attention to the kinds of starches you consume. Taking supplemental digestive enzymes would also be very helpful as these improve absorption. This is particularly necessary if you have just started on a high fiber diet.
Take note however that high fiber supplements are not supposed to replace the fiber that comes from food sources. Although supplements can help you meet your daily recommended fiber intake, they do not provide all the necessary fibers your body needs. Amylases for starch digestion and alpha-galactosidase are just two of them. To ensure that you are supplied with all the types of fibers you need, it is better and healthier to eat a high fiber diet.
Aside from fiber, there are other reasons why we suffer from bloat and gas and these include:
Processed foods – When food is processed, it is stripped of essential nutrients such as copper, chromium, manganese, cobalt, zinc and magnesium. When a certain food does not contain these nutrients, the carbohydrates in the food are not digested properly. These unused carbohydrates encourage the bad bacteria to produce intestinal gas.
Swallowed air – When you have too much air in your stomach, you start belching or burping. If you eat or drink too fast, use a straw to drink, talk while you eat, or drink carbonated beverages, you get to swallow a lot of air. This in turn produces neutral gas made up of oxygen and nitrogen which is normally released by belching.
Poor food combinations – Watson explains that fruits should be eaten alone and not in combination with other foods because they are easily processed by the body. When fruits are eaten in combination with other foods, the digestive process is slowed down. The same rule applies to protein which should not be eaten with starchy carbohydrates.
Intestinal gas is produced by everyone although it can be avoided. Nobody wants to experience the discomfort and embarrassment it causes. Undigested food in the colon, the by-product of poor digestion, is what causes gas. To avoid this situation, make sure to have enough naturally occurring digestive enzymes and do not eat foods that are hard to digest.
Charles Volcolatte is a health and weight loss researcher for http://www.skinnyasap.com/. He writes and researches actively on Weight Loss Reviews and shares his knowledge at http://www.skinnyasap.com/ where he works as a staff writer.
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