In this article I will reveal some little known facts about the fibers and the beneficial effect they have over your body.

First of all let me explain what fiber is…
Fiber is an indigestible part of all plant foods. It is found in fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. Your digestive system cannot stomach fiber, so it is excreted undigested. Well, you may think you don’t need fiber, because it’s excreted undigested, but that’s not true.

Let’s imagine the following picture:

You overeat at least once or twice a week, more often at weekends, and your regular menu doesn’t include much fiber. Well, this might be your life style; however you should consider that it may cause you lots of health problems like:

- indigestion
- discomfort stomach aches
- gases in the digestive tract
- constipation
- hemorrhoids
- you got tired faster
- can’t concentrate on what you’re doing

I mean you become less productive at work and more irritable at home. Besides all this, you gain weight and that’s the moment when you realize you have a problem.

In order to solve a problem, you should first find the reason for it. In this case it’s the lowered intake of fiber-rich foods and respectively - the higher intake of foods containing no fiber (like meat). The average amount of fiber intake is about 25-30 grams per day. Unfortunately most people regular diets include less than 10-15 grams daily.

You should start consuming more fiber-rich foods:

- all bran cereal
- beans
- peas
- spinach
- sweet corn
- wholemeal brown bread
- red cabbage
- carrots
- baked potato with skin
- apples, bananas, oranges and all fruits

There are two types of fiber - soluble and insoluble. If you start eating more food rich in fiber, you’ll be amazed of its beneficial effects over your body, health and way of life.

Soluble fiber forms glue like gel in the intestinal tract. The gel softens stools (no more constipation) and improves your digestion (no more indigestion).

Fiber slows down stomach emptying and you feel fuller longer. This effect helps you eat less, your body burns additional calories to digest fiber and you can lose weight.

Insoluble fiber is an excellent natural laxative, because of its abilities to hold onto water and to push waste faster along the intestines - this way fiber decreases the risk of colon cancer.

In conclusion I’d like to tell you that you won’t be sorry if you start eating more fiber-rich foods. Like many other people I used to take not enough fiber, and I suffered stomach aches. Then I started to eat more fruits and fiber-rich foods in my daily menu. I must admit that it really worked for me, and now fiber-rich food is the most important nutritious part of my regular diet.

Find more information at http://www.weight-loss-advisor.com. Start losing weight with fiber-rich foods Now!

Tags: dietary, nutrition guide, mineral supplement, vitamin, antioxidant

Bookmark to:

One of the factors that significantly influences recovery—how steep the slope of the curve, and therefore how much of an overshoot (image a hose pointing into the air and then adjusting the pressure of the water)—is the fuel the body has available to it. If the right volume and combination of nutrients are available, the body will sling back with tremendous force. If not, both the benefit from training will be dampened, and lengthen the time it takes before training can be resumed will be lengthened.

To take full advantage of nutrition’s impact on the overshoot, fuel has to be on hand when the body starts to recover. And, using a little common sense, you can’t immediately get fuel to your muscles, organs, and brain by eating—unless you’re going to tote an IV bag around. Digestion just plain takes time.

The most influential period in recovery happens in the first hour post-training. At that point, your muscles need glycogen and amino acids, your liver needs hepatic sugar, and you must have a host of co-factors such as insulin. But take amino acids, for instance. Their source is protein and it takes about 3 hours to digest protein. If you wait until after training to provide these nutrients, your timing will be off by 200%. Certainly not peak performance!

So what can you do? Pay strict attention to pre-training fuel intake. Here are four basic guidelines that are critical for all athletes follow:

(1) Eat a well balanced, healthy meal about 3 hours prior to conditioning. This includes a full serving of low-glycemic index carbohydrates such as fruits, legumes, whole grains, and non-fat milk, along with a full serving of high quality, lean protein (servings are dictated by weight, level of fitness, metabolism, gender, and type of sport).

(2) Drink plenty of water throughout the day. For many sports, this requirement is upward of 100 ounces every 24 hours!

(3) Take in a liquid form of carbohydrate (5-10% carbohydrate by solution) immediately before training commences. The company Twin Lab makes a good product for this, called Hydra Fuel.

(4) Down an exercise recovery drink right after finishing your conditioning (or as soon as your stomach will tolerate one). The best recovery drinks are scientifically designed to provide the right balance and forms of carbohydrates and protein. Check out Twin Lab’s OptiFuel 2.

JOHN F. ELIOT, PH.D., is an award winning professor of management, psychology, and human performance. He holds faculty appointments at Rice University and the SMU Cox School of Business Leadership Center. He is a co-founder of the Milestone Group, a consulting firm providing training to business executives, professional athletes, physicians, and corporations. Dr. Eliot’s clients have included: SAP, XEROX, Disney, Adidas, the United States Olympic Committee, the National Champion Rice Owl’s baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Eliot’s cutting edge work has been featured on ABC, MSNBC, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, NPR, and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, Entrepreneur, LA Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times. Dr. Eliot serves on numerous advisory boards including the National Center for Human Performance and the Center for Performing Arts Medicine. His latest book is Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance. For more information, visit Dr. Eliot’s site at http://www.overachievement.com

Tags: nutritious, Nutrition Information, medicinal, nutritional, vitamin

Bookmark to: