This image shows various dry fruits. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I know I already blogged about fibre, but I have to say, it is still worth reiterating and here is a different spin: the Canadian Cancer Society indicates that eating plenty of fibre is one of the best defences against many types of cancer. Now that is worth talking about, isn’t it?
So what foods have the most fibre? Vegetables and fruit, whole grains, legumes-such as beans, peas and lentils-and nuts. This is really no surprise but it is important to make sure you have enough fibre in your diet. What is enough, you ask? Well, let me tell you! Again, the Canadian Cancer Society indicates that an adequate intake of fibre is estimated to be 21 to 38 grams of dietary fibre per day. This is why it is important to have 5-10 servings of vegetables and fruit every day, 5-12 servings of whole grain foods every day and 2-3 servings of meat/legumes/nuts/seeds every day.
The vegetables with the highest components of fibre are: potato with the skin on (5 gr), 1/2 cup sweet potato (4 gr), 1/2 cup peas (4 gr), 1/2 cup Brussel sprouts(3 gr), 1/2 cup broccoli (2 gr), 1/2 cup green/yellow beans (2 gr), 1/2 cup carrots (2 gr) and mushrooms (2 gr).
The fruits with the highest components of fibre are: pear with the skin (5 gr), 1/2 a papaya (3 gr), 5 prunes (3 gr), 1/3 cup raisins (3 gr), raspberries (3 gr), 5 dates (4 gr), 1 apples with the skin (3 gr), 1/4 cup dried apricots (3 gr) and an orange (3 gr).
I know, I know…it all seems so overwhelming! 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables? Is she nuts?! Well…perhaps, and I will be the first one to tell you that it is more than a challenge for me to get my daily requirements of fibre in my diet, but here are a few tips to help you out:
- Choose a cereal with at least 4 grams of fibre per serving
- add fresh or frozen berries to your cereal
- sprinkle granola or bran on yogurt
- eat trail mix or dried fruit as a snack in the afternoon
- use humus on your sandwich instead of mayo
- add shredded carrots to your sandwich with your lettuce
- leave the skins on your potatoes
- make a salad using broccoli instead of lettuce
- add cooked lentils to your pasta sauce
- use whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta
So even if you implement one of these suggestions, you are going to boost up the amount of fibre you have in your day, and you will be taking an active role to combat the nasty “C”.
As a side note, my 7 year old daughter has had this rash like “thing” on her forehead for about a year now and I had no idea what could have caused it. I stopped milk to see if that would make a difference-nothing. I increased her water intake-nothing. I washed her face with organic face soap-nothing. I took her to the doctor who gave me topical cream-nothing. Finally, I took her to a naturopath-Dr. Nisha Thadani-who asked her a variety of questions and came to the conclusion that my daughter is having problems with her digestive system. Probing further about her bowel movements (sorry for those of you squeamish folks out there!), we found out that she moves her bowels once a week!
Why am I telling you this story? Because not only does fibre help to fight cancer, it helps to keep adults regular as well as our kids regular. Although I thought I was on the fibre kick with her, apparently not enough! We are going to finish our regime of the naturopathic medicine and then we are going to start taking fish oil to increase her intake of Omega-3, and that, my dear folks, will be for another blog!
If you are in the Halton Region and are interested about learning more about foods and how to organize your dinners-and save a mountain of time, and oodles of money-please come to my workshop where I will Simplify Your Life. Yes, that is the title and I will hold true to form! I will teach you the ins and outs of meal planning, and you will walk away with a few “aha moments” of your own. Go to my website and sign up for this workshop this Saturday October 27th from 2:00pm-3:30pm. www.easybite.ca
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