Fiber: I can has fiber with my cheezburger? Or how I gave up and stopped hating on collards

Fiber is awesome. If you have not discovered what fiber can do for your weight the "regularity" is a nice bonus.

So what is fiber? Fiber is component youre body can't breakdown for DIRECT calorie usaged. Thats not to say fiber is calorie free, far from it. In fact some fiber has as much as 2 calories a gram! So lets talk what it is, how we use it, and hows we gets it...

So not all fiber is created equal. Theres soluble fiber which break down in the lower gut to short chain fatty acids, a good thing. They help keep you full, support gut floria, and clean up your upper bowels some. Soluble fiber sources are starches that arent broken down (such as raw potato starch) or are found paired in some places with insoluble fiber such as physillium husk. Solubles draw water in, puff up, expand (hence the fullness) and gel into a slime so you got to consume them quick. They can slow down the digestion of rapid digesting protiens and carbs making something like simple sugars or whey slow to a much more usable slow drip. This may also affect blood sugar level and/or insulin response as well as your LDL bad cholestrol and even triglyrericdes in some so bueno for the diabetic and heart issue peeps. Example are oatmeal, oat cereal, greens, lentils, oat bran, nuts, flaxseeds, beans, dried peas, psyllium, cucumbers, celery, and carrots.

Sound great, well then you'll love this. Now lets talk insoluble, the king o fiber. These bad boys do not break down fully. These come "out" much like they go in, roughly like sawdust. They do everythign soluble fiber does and more. Insoluble fibers are gut-healthy fiber because they have a laxative effect (like your granpapies prunes) and add bulk to the colon crosssection <cough *constipation>. These fibers do not breakdown in water and speed up the flow of waste through your gut, like a brilo pad cutting through the grime. Examples whole grains (wheat, bran, whoel rices, bulgur) seeds, nuts, zucchini, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, dark leafy vegetables, prunes/raisens, and root vegetable skins.

So how do we add fiber to our diet:
- Eat more whole foods, particularly veggies, Lets cooked the better as heat breaks down fiber
- Add raw starch cold into your diet like raw potato starch (warning heating breaks down the fiber)
- add physiullm husk to your diet. This soaks up watre so you have to do so fast.

Hope this helped, enjoy!