DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Find out what it does for your body and some simple ways to sneak it into your diet. Do you eat enough fiber? Probably not. Most of the foods we tend to eat contain very little. Milk and milk products, such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream, contain none. Beef, chicken, fish, eggs and processed cold cuts contain none.

With the exception of baked beans, peas and corn, most vegetables contain relatively little. A salad containing one cup of lettuce, a very large cucumber and three tomatoes has only five grams of fiber. And we are supposed to eat 10 grams for every 1,000 calories we eat. That is a lot!

We need fiber to keep our digestive tract functioning well and, to some extent, to decrease fat and cholesterol absorption from our digesting food. Fiber is hard to obtain, especially in restaurant and/or highly processed foods, such as pizza, sandwiches and Chinese take-out. Before starting to munch on high-fiber toothpicks and napkins, try some of the high-fiber options listed below. You still may not make your daily quota, but at least you can increase your fiber intake from zero to something.

Unprocessed Bran ½ cup = 13.2 g. If you make muffins, use this.

All Bran, Bran Buds and 100 Bran are the best cereals for fiber; ½ cup has about 9 g.

Breads are low in fiber; even whole wheat has only 2 g per slice.

½ cup baked beans = 9 g

½ cup chickpeas = 6 g

½ cup canned peas or dried split peas = 5.4 g

½ cup spinach or broccoli = 5.7 g

½ cup corn (canned or on cob) = 4.5 g

1 cup carrots, cooked = 4.6 g

½ cup stewed prunes = 8.6 g

10 dried apricots = 8.4 g

½ cup raisins = 5.6 g

½ cup blackberries = 5.8 g

1 medium pear = 4.0 g

¼ cup almonds = 5.6 g (unfortunately these contain lots of fat)

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