Interesting Facts about Fiber

Well it is time to talk about Fiber.  We hear alot about it and most thoughts come to us as Bran cereal or some brown unflavorable product of our childhood.  That is so far from the truth.  Fiber items can be delicious and you are most likely eating it already, you just need to increase your amounts to meet optimal health. 

Fiber is in two forms, soluable and insoluable.  Soluable fiber is what most of us think of with the word fiber found in oat brans and barley for example.  These reduce cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels.  Your liver produces bile acids and cholesterol.  Soluable fiber reduces this cholesterol naturally, therefore the liver must use your additional cholesterol to  manufacture new bile.  It is a win win situation by nature.  Soluable fiber reduces blood sugar by slowing the rate in which the stomach releases the food.  Therefore your levels stay more even and you feel full longer and then do not over eat.  This enhances insulin sensitivity.  It keeps your blood sugar level by delaying the absoption of glucose following the meal.  The only side effects to increased fiber is through lack of chewing propperly. 

Insoluable fiber is known as friendly bacteria that line the large intestines.  This fiber can ferment and in the colon can produce a short chain fatty acid called butytic acid and is the primary fuel for the large intestines.  This prevents colon cancer, hermorhoids, obesity, constipation, and elevated cholesterol to name a few.  They also play an important role in the immune system preventing pathogenic bacteria that causes disease. 

Fibers that are not fermentable increase the transit time in the bowels promoting regularity and therefore preventing disease such as colon cancer.  I resently had a colonoscopy and had only one pollop that was not malignat.  I was told one in five have pollops and they always turn cancerous.  We all hold the ability to produce cancerous cells.  It is a matter to what will trigger this mutation so why not do all we can to prevent it when some things are so simple?  My Dr. simply said to increase fiber in my diet. Would not be great if everything was so simple? 

There are at least 25 items I could name to increase your fiber,  here are a few:
rasberries   cauliflower  collard greens  broccoli  spinich  celery  cabbage  grapefruit  cranberries  strwberries  bell pepper  dried peas  winter squash  lentils  brussels sprouts  carrots  eggplant

So enjoy your meals by adding some of these and others you find.  God health to you!

papers I wrote on Phytic acid and hormones

• There have been some issues with the blogger. I hope this is complete.
• I have corrected this several times.
• http://www.phyticacid.org
• (known as
• Healthiest Way of Eating by George Mateljan
• PHYTIC Acid and soaking
• There are several reasons for soaking beans and legumes before cooking. Legumes in general contain a toxic substance which leaches into the water and therefore can be thrown away. One type of carbohydrates called oligosaccharides leaches into the soaking water in great amounts and this increases the digestibility as these sugar molecules that are resistant to digestion. Prolonged cooking denatures the proteins in beans and therefore you would want to lessen the cooking time, soaking allows this. Probiotic lactobacilli and other digestive mircoflora are an important source of the enzyme phytase. This is what gives us a healthy digestive tract so nutrients may be obsorbed. If you are not a dairy eater you would do well to use other foods to increase micrflora in the intestine.
• Phytic acid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid
• Phytic acid
inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) , or phytate ( when in salt form) is the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially bran and seeds.[
• Phytic acid has a strong binding to calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. When phytic acid binds with these they become insoluble and are not absorbed into the intestines. This can cause deficiencies. People with low stomach acid such as the elderly have iron and calcium deficiencies.
  Physic acid and iron absorption may not be a real problem as most people do not rely on beans as their main source of iron intake.
• Asorbic Acid ( vitamin C) can reduce phytic acid effect on iron.
• Phytic acid works as an antioxidant in plants and is at it’s highest when sprouting to protect the plant.
• It is interesting that most non ruminant livestock are fed soybeans, corn, and grains that become unavailable for absorption due to phytate from these grains, passing through the digestive tract and cause phosphorus excretion, an environmental hazard. ( more on this another time) Phytic acid is found within the hulls of nuts and seeds as well.
• Having mineral binding properties may also prevent colon cancer by reducing oxidative stress.
• Oxidative stress:
• cell impairment from too much oxygen:
• impaired performance of cells caused by the presence of too many oxygen molecules in them
Over all it would be most beneficial to soak legumes and beans for better nutrient absorption.

• Jeanne Nabozny wk 5 nutrition DQ1 Hormones in food
• http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/hormones/
• http://www.ehow.com/how_2077666_raise-grass-fed-cattle.html
• Hormones added to our meat resources causes rapid growth and faster supply to the market demand. At what cost to the animals and human life is there? Hormone residue in meats disrupts hormone imbalance, developmental problems, interferes reproductive system, and leads to breast, prostrate and colon cancer. It causes animal to be unhealthy, often sickly, and unable as in chickens to even hold up their own body weight causing them to sit in their own excrement due to lack of natural exercise.
• I am over fifty years old. Even I remember that as a near teen, the article in our local paper discussing the breast formation and menstrual cycles occurring in four year old girls due to hormones in meats. Naturally there was a disruption in boys as well but it was not so physically outwardly visible to the public as large breasts on young girls.
• Knowing this has not stopped the hormone distribution through out the meat industry any more than any other industry selling products that openly cause cancer, and other abnormalities. 80% of feed lot cattle receive hormone growth injections.
• These hormones pass through the animals and end up in the manure they leave behind then distributed to the soil and end up in our water supplies from ground run off.
• The European union
• does not allow the use of hormones in cattle production, has prohibited the import of hormone treated beef, since 1988. It has banned all beef imports from the U.S. and Canada, and the debate still rages today between Europe and the U.S. by the world Trade Organization.
• RBGH also known as rBST
• is a genetically engineered growth hormone injected into dairy cows . 1994 found a N.Y. farmer having severe problems with his cows health after injecting them with this hormone. One year later he had to replace 135 of his 200 cows due to illness. Similar farmers complained of internal bleeding, open soars, hoof disease, and death. 1991 Vermont reported deformed calves, painful bacterial infections, causing the increase of antibiotics in dairy animals.
• So how can we produce enough product to satisfy the American appetite and not use hormones?
• Considering the carbon foot print is lowered, the cattle are healthier, the meat contains 60% more omega3 fatty acids, is higher in vitamin E, higher in CLR (conjugated Linoleic Acid) and is healthier over all to the consumer. CLR causes a reduction in cancer, heart disease, and onset diabetes. It would only make sense.
• Grass fed cattle lead a stress free life by doing what is natural. As a farmer look for breeds that thrive on grass, feed grass and legumes. If absolutely necessary give antibiotics only when very ill, rotate your pasture, and provide your own hay. Provide two acres per head of cattle, keep them in one area at a time for the grass to replenish it’s self and provide plenty of water. Provide a good hay ring to hold your baled hay during winter months to prevent the hay from being strewn about and trampled on. Not feeding grain is very cost effective according to grass fed beef growers.
• For every one thousand head of cattle you would need two thousand acres. This is the desirable acreage even for non grass fed cattle to pasture naturally. This should not be a problem in this country as the government still owns open grass lands for ranchers in the west for this purpose. We need to utilize this country for the good of man kind and not for selfish profits. This country was built on the backs of grass fed beef, and allowing the small homesteads to provide for their own families in rural and suburbia well planned communities will allow the individual to provide for themselves, releasing the burden of the cattle market.
• This country was once filled with farms and producers of healthy marketed foods. The small farmer needs to return and with enough smaller farmers our communities can relay on our local markets (baring they too do not get greedy) thus bringing the social net work back into perspective, your local butcher. I raised organically years ago, two cattle on two acres and this provide more than enough beef when we had 5 children still at home. Naturally then we raised a pig and had our own chickens for eggs. The protein balance was natural. Although we prefer not to eat pork now.
If you are a city mouse headed for the country expect to smell farms. There is a reasonable amount of odor certain times of the year here in Lancaster county, Pa. It is not offensive to those who understand the production of good food. So stand up and take o’ whiff or go back to the city and smell the pollution!

organic shopping

organic grains and nuts and rasins

organic vegtables

Today I went and bought two jam packed boxes of organic foods. The new love of my life, Millers Natural Foods store, does not use bags plastic or otherwise.  So now I must remember all those cloth bags I purchased for this purpose.  As it is an Amish store, the sign on the door as you go in says, " no electric lighting used in this store".
 What ever I can not eat fast enough I will blanch and freeze.  I have not been this excited about shopping for a long time.
 I bought unsalted cashews, brown rice, millett, quinoa, and rasisns.  I did buy some whole white milk, and a bottle of chocolate milk all also organic.  As I am not a big milk drinker, I bought a half gallon and could possibly split and freeze half.  I know some time in this class we will learn the negatives of dairy but for now I will enjoy the organic part and leave it at that. 
I bought three kinds of squash, carotts, asparagus, beets with the greens, kale, celery, white cap mushrooms, parsnip, romaine lettice, green pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, apples and had received three free eggplant form a neighbor.  yum we will be eating good!  Add this to the dried beans and fresh caught fish and we will be well rounded.
We already enjoyed these foods so our diets will only be healthier due to no chemicals or GMO's.
The only new food is the quina.  I hear it very nutritious and great for breakfast. It will give a change from oatmeal, eggs, organic wheat-a-bix, etc.
Now what's for dinner?

organic grill and wine bar

I have discovered a great place to eat.  I have decided from all we are learning to try and eat all organic when ever possible.  My friend Ada wanted to take me to lunch and when I explained my position, she knew of a great place.  It was worth the drive.  It is HARVEST Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar.
They are supplied by organic local, sustainable, seasonally changing, and farm to table suppliers.
The great thing about this place is the waiter was so attentive and informative.  He explained everything, and even told us that at the hiring you have to watch the movie Food Inc.  and follow their way of thinking or your will not be hired.  They do not own a microwave.

The food was some of the tastiest I have had in a long time.  I chose the grass fed beef as I wanted to compare it to traditional meat I usually eat.  It was a little dryer as I had read grass fed beef is, but much less fat, and the taste was amazing. Texture was harty, and I felt right away I had bit into something substantial.  The portions were reasonable and more than enough.  They were not these huge over necessary portions that people think they need.  They were not mini portions you eat on a cracker either.  It was interesting that the food was so nutritious that we brought half of it home as we were full half way through.  There was no need for us to eat more than we needed, as we were not continually hungry.  The food sustained us and I felt no reason to eat snack in the evening as I usually do.  Most items were under 500 calories.

My friend was surprised that she felt no desire to continue eating and her body knew when to stop.  She usually found at eating out she was hungry the entire meal and walked away still feeling she was not satisfied.  This simply was not the case for either of us this time.  She was starting an eating program to lose weight for health reasons and through this experience she discovered that eating organic obviously was the way.  She not only would have great nutrition, eat food that tasted like real food, but would eat smaller portions due to being satisfied. 

The owner is DAVE MAGROGAN and the manager is DAVID STEIGER.  I hope you will visit his restaurant. 

                                                       HARVEST
                                             seasonal Grill & Wine Bar
                                             549 Wilmington West Chester Pike
                                              Glen Mills, Pa. 19342
                                                     610  358-1005

                                HARVESTSEASONALGRILL.COM