17. A miracle remedy

If we offered you a miracle remedy that prevents cardiac disease,
certain types of cancer, diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and varicose
veins, would you buy it? Certainly you would.
There is such a product. But it is not a recent discovery and you
won’t find it in a pharmacy but at the grocery store. We are talking
about fiber.
A study conducted in Holland on 871 men, over a period of ten
years, showed that subjects who had a low fiber diet were three
times more susceptible to mortal disease - causes notwithstanding -
than those who ate a lot of fiber (Future Youth).
This said, it cannot be confirmed at present that fiber prevents
the above mentioned diseases in all cases. But there is conclusive
proof that they occur more frequently in populations with low fiber
diets which is precisely the case in the west.
According to The Lancet (the British Medical Journal) a diet
which contains at least 37 grams of fiber per day (the equivalent of
one cup of bran, one apple, one potato and a half cup of cooked
spinach) can effectively protect the organism against chronic illnesses
common to western society.
So fiber is useful in combatting many disorders
besides constipation.
LOW FIBER FOODS:
Notably white bread (since fiber is removed in white flour),
beef, pork, chicken, milk, butter, cheese, sugar, processed meats,
desserts, fish, seafood and noodles.
GOOD SOURCES OF FIBER:
· Fruits: especially apples and prunes.
· Vegetables: potatoes with their peel, spinach, artichokes,
cabbage, peas.
· Whole grains: barley, whole wheat (you should eat whole
wheat bread because of the bran it contains), oats, corn.
· Nuts: peanuts and almonds.
· Dried fruit: apricots, plums, figs, dates.
· Legumes: soy beans, lima beans, lentils, chick peas.
Note that there are numerous types of fiber, and that you should
alternate between them. For example, the fiber contained in apples
and the fiber in cereals are both essential, since they don’t have the
same digestive function.