Episode 43: Fiber fix for busy moms

Welcome to the Beauty of Better podcast, where we help moms thrive in health and faith.

Hi, Beauty of Better Mommas. We are excited to come to you today and talk a little bit about fiber and glycemic load.

We've kind of been having our nutrition series here and talking about individual components that we find in foods and how they can work together synergistically or separately and why they're important.

And we've been giving you some tips and tricks of where to find them and how to read food labels. So today's just kind of a continuation, defining things for you, kind of breaking it down into smaller steps and smaller pieces.

So I'll just start with defining a couple of things, and then we can kind of share a couple other things that could be helpful for you. So fiber is going to be the first one I'm going to break down.

And it actually, to say break down, it is an indigestible part of a plant-based food, so that's kind of a play on words there.

And it's found in carbohydrates, and so the human body needs both soluble and insoluble types of fiber, which we'll define for you today, crucial for digestion, right?

It also really helps regulate and slow down the sugar and absorption of sugar, which kind of builds off of our GI talk that we've, not GI, thinking GI, because that's your digestants, and glycemic index, GI, double GI, right? Please double duty.

And then glycemic load is really how quickly and how much a food would raise your blood sugar. And that glycemic load is calculated by looking at the amount of carbohydrate and the glycemic index, and then dividing that by 100.

So those who don't really like math, maybe we'll just stick with some of our general definitions.

But also remember, when we're picking foods, we're picking it with a lens that it's not just, oh, only low GI foods are good, or only medium, or only high glycemic load, like, or fiber.

There's, there has to be a why behind each of those, and we do want balance in the eating, is kind of what we promote here at Beauty of Better.

And just even listening today, you're taking one small step towards learning a little bit more about fiber and glycemic load.

2:29

Fiber Promotes Fullness

Love that, Kristiana.

So fiber, as she was talking about, because fiber is something that your body can't fully digest, it is actually going to help keep you full for longer.

So if you have meals that have more fiber in them, it's going to help you feel more satisfied after you eat. You probably are going to have less cravings and want less snacks in between meals, which is really important.

It's also, let's see, what was I going to say?

So because it has that property, things like fruits and veggies and beans and whole grains, all of these things, your body is not going to instantly turn those into sugar, but they're going to move slowly through your system, and it's going to do a

lot of good along the way as it's doing that. So it's really kind of connected to what we talked about in the previous episode with glycemic index.

So if you haven't listened to the glycemic index episode, I would recommend going back and listening to that one first and then listening to this one.

But it's really relevant for moms because it's sometimes hard enough to remember to eat as it is if you're a working mom.

And so when you do eat, if you can get more fibrous foods in your meals, not only is it going to help keep you full for longer, but it's also good for keeping you regular, like not being constipated, keeping you going to the restroom, which is good.

So lots of benefits that we can get from fiber.

That's so good. As you were saying that, Kelsey, from our last episode, I was just reminded of what Kathleen said with just how when you eat foods that have more fiber, like whole grains or even fruits, like your bodies work harder.

And I loved how she explained that. So definitely listen to our previous episode before this one and hear those good examples.

4:36

Soluble Insoluble Fiber

Just wanted to quickly break down soluble fiber and insoluble fiber because when you're looking at a food label, you'll see carbohydrates listed and you'll see sugars under that. But you'll also see fiber under that.

And sometimes they break it down and they tell you specifically, it's soluble fiber or insoluble fiber. And they're both good for you. So let's start with that.

So soluble fiber is actually fiber that dissolves in water. And it becomes like a sticky gel when your body's digesting it. This is really, really important because you can think of it, I always tell my students, it's like a dump truck.

It will help stick to things like cholesterol and help take bad things out of your body. So you really do need soluble fiber in your diet for that. Insoluble fiber, you can think of it as like, it doesn't dissolve in water.

And so it's more of that, the rougher pieces that don't get absorbed, that help push things through your body and keep you regular, not constipated. So we need insoluble fiber for digestion.

We need soluble fiber because it helps with blood sugar, it helps with cholesterol, it helps get yucky things out. So I just wanted to give those basic definitions of soluble and insoluble fiber.

And Kathleen, I know you've got a lot to say about everything with this, so.

5:55

Fiber's Health Advantages

Yeah, no worries.

Well, I'm just laughing because, you know, insoluble fiber, you think of the skins of a lot of fruits and vegetables. And you know, with your own kids, whenever you feed them corn and you see that come out the other side, it's a little graphic there.

But that's just an example of insoluble fiber, just seeing it come out the other side.

So, but you know, some benefits of fiber, digestive health, like we talked about, you know, when you have those regular bowel movements and you have that dump truck working through your body, getting that, you know, clearing out your body, that's

naturally going to help your body with its kind of detox abilities. And then, you know, gut health. So fiber works as a prebiotic. So you hear the term probiotic, and then prebiotic is it actually feeds the good bacteria in your digestive system.

And so you want to have plenty of fiber for feeding those good bacteria. Also weight management.

So Kelsey talked about how, you know, it helps you feel fuller longer and potentially can reduce your overall calorie intake because you're not like, you know, if you eat foods that you know, like, let's say you have a piece of cake and then within

an hour, you know, your blood sugar has dropped and you're like, Oh, I want something else. And then you're craving another high calorie food to make up for that blood sugar drop.

So if you eat foods that have fiber in them, that's going to take longer for your body to digest and work through your system to get to release that blood sugar or that sugar into your blood.

Then that's going to help you feel fuller longer and be craving less snacks in between. Also, disease prevention.

You know, there has been some research showing that fiber could potentially help lower the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer. And yeah, so those are just a few things of some of the benefits of fiber, but honestly just overall health.

And once again, if you look at those sources that we mentioned about, you know, nuts, seeds, beans, fruits, vegetables, you know, all of those also contain the, you know, the vitamins and minerals, also the protein that we were talking about.

These things work together to help balance our blood sugar. And so just realizing that when you're getting fiber in a food, that you're often getting these other nutrients as well that are working together for the benefit of your health.

8:24

Increase Fiber Intake

But I don't know if we wanted to share just a few ideas for how to increase our fiber intake in our every day.

And jump in a bit. I think just evaluating in general, like as kind of a zoomed out lens, is how much processed versus whole foods are you having, right? Because they tend to have more process.

If you tend to have more processed foods, that tends to be stripped and devoid of a lot of these essential soluble and insoluble fibers. And women need about 25 grams per day in fiber.

So if you're just kind of doing an zoomed out view rather than like a deep analysis of every single thing that you put in your body, it's just kind of more processed or unprocessed. Like what are you consuming?

And if you're eating less whole foods, then you might need to consider other ways to get fiber into your body. And then in terms of like how to get it in, I was just kind of reflecting on my kids have just loved smoothies.

And so I think, you know, if you're trying to hide one of my... My daughter hid green onions, like chives, like green onions in a mango smoothie yesterday. I was like, what is this?

I don't mind green onions, but my kids have learned that we put, you know, fruits and vegetables. But those smoothies, like you get more of that fiber in there than if you were to do... Like, we have a juicer too than if we were to juice, right?

Because then you're getting that fiber. So that's one thing that I know at least our family has discussed. Like, okay, maybe we're not getting it in our breakfast and snack and lunch and other snack and dinner.

But if we have a gap in there that they had, something that is more processed, then let's make a smoothie and just share that as a family and try to get both our fruits and vegetables in that mix.

But if you're even struggling with that, there is supplementation that can be used as well.

Something...

No, no, you go.

Okay, so something that I try to remind myself, it's a really simple reminder for fiber. But if you just think, add something that's plant-based, most of the time, that's got fiber in it.

So like we talked about, fruits, veggies, whole grains, all of those things have fiber.

So if you can think, wherever you can throughout the day, whatever meal you think you can maybe make a small shift, like maybe you can, something I actually recently started doing was like stewing a tomato with my eggs for breakfast, which just means

like putting it in a little water in the pan, and it makes it soft and yummy and sweet. So maybe that's really easy to do, just like chop up a tomato ahead of time, and just toss it in the pan and have it with your eggs, or like zucchini or something

like that in the morning. That can just taste really good together. But typically, if it's plant-based, it's most likely got some type of fiber in it, and is a little bit, that's just a simple reminder that I like to use and also use with my kids.

So.

11:37

Prioritize Whole Foods

That's a really good tip, Kelsey, because I feel like in culture, you'll see these trends, and right now everything's protein, protein, protein.

But you realize that, okay, I feel like I have yet to see a trend that's like, fiber everything. Let's make it. With our cake shirt.

Let's start.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fiber happens. I don't know. Or fiber.

I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I just am like, this is just, it is such an important thing, and I love that example, because it's just adding some plant foods and stuff to our diet, can just, just that little focus, that little shift in our mindset.

Because I just think how many shakes and bars and all the things that are out there, that if we can switch our focus, and oftentimes you'll see those bars, they like add fiber or they'll add C-biotics to them. And it's not, yes, it's not natural.

I'm like, God made foods naturally with proteins and vitamins and minerals and fiber and awesomeness. And so, you know, I'm thinking even about my snack after this podcast.

I was like, okay, I'm going to get a whole apple, cut it up, and have some peanut butter. You know, just like think about snacking on the go instead of just resorting to the latest and greatest shake or bar.

It's like, how can I actually just change that to a whole food and making sure I get some protein and fiber in there?

And just even little swaps like that, like, I know myself, I've tried at times, I've tried just for the sake of appeasing someone in my life, like, okay, I'll try, I'll try this shake. And then my tummy feels like upset.

I'm just like, oh, that just doesn't feel like natural. And whenever we come back to just like whole foods that our bodies recognize, that we are designed to recognize, you know, oftentimes we'll have less issues with those things.

And so I think people, especially in America, we have a very commercial culture around nutrition. And I think it's just, let's get back to basics and simplify things a little bit. So fiber, we need fiber mamas.

Yeah, thank you.

Go for it.

13:43

Daily Fiber Strategies

I was saying, most people are low in their fiber. Like, just if you analyze some of the data and the research available out there, most people are low.

And so I think if you figure out what are the main fruits and vegetables you have in your home, and how much fiber do those things offer, apples, oranges, tangerines, pears have about three to four grams of fiber.

You know, remember we said that targets like around 25, maybe 30. But this is my absolute favorite thing. If I had to live off of one thing, it is raspberries, right?

And raspberries for one cup, one cup of raspberries. Oh, I can do it, guys, if I can just find it. Eight grams of fiber.

So like, if you could, yeah, raspberries aren't always cheap and aren't always available. Maybe the frozen form. But yeah, so just being aware of like, okay, I'm gonna have some fruit.

But, you know, I'll eat a whole cup full of raspberries, and I'm gonna get like double the amount as if I had that apple.

Yeah, right. That's so good.

And you know, we just talked about antioxidants in a recent episode where we did talk about pomegranates too, where those have a lot of fiber in them as well.

And I think, you know, just this idea of what foods can we have and how do we pair them properly? You know, we work really hard to get protein, and we know that one's not easy, and we know fiber's not easy either.

And usually, high-protein foods don't always have fiber. So that's why Kelsey and Kathleen were just talking about, you know, pair it with something like, grab a plant-based something like fruit, vegetable to go with it, to add that fiber.

And, you know, Kathleen has great examples of this where you leave the skin on, right? You leave the skin on or you eat foods like raspberries that have seeds to actually get that extra fiber intake.

Instead of, you can even think, like, I'm gonna use an apple as an example, because we've used it many times. If you have a whole apple with the skin on, you're getting a lot more fiber than if you peel the apple and just eat it.

Or if you were to juice it, right? As we talked about in the last episode, like, you'd get a whole lot of sugar and no fiber.

So just, like, thinking of how processed, and not even just food processing through companies and purchasing, but, like, how we process our own food and whether we're eating them in the whole state or somehow processing them, even for our kids.

So and I think that's important, too, to teach our kids, like, to like apples with the skin on or, you know, kiwis. You can eat the skin of kiwis, and that has a ton of fiber in it.

So I think just introducing foods like that, I love to just cut up fruits and vegetables and put them on a board and let my boys just try different ones and just see, like, oh, it's not scary to have a kiwi with the skin on, even though most people,

like, scoop it out. So I think just trying to make it fun to find ways to have fiber and then pair it with protein as well.

I feel like if you make it look pretty, your kids are more likely to eat it, but also I'm more likely to eat it. Like, put it on a cutting board with some toothpicks, and everybody's now excited about it.

And I think if you're weaning off of peeling your fruit, so one thing that we learned from a different family, because normally, let's say, for example, cucumbers, right? You can put that on a lot of meals. We used to peel them all, right?

Like, always peel it. But now we do zebra stripes, and our kids are like, it tastes so much better when it's zebra striped. So it's like, you only peel half of it, so you're getting half of the skin of the cucumber and not the other half.

So, and then, yeah, just I think, like you said, like the board and finding fun ways to get our kids and other people who might be visiting our homes, eating things that are good for them, and maybe they haven't ventured to try before.

That's a good tip.

17:36

Balanced Plate Approach

Another way, just kind of going back to, we mentioned a little bit about glycemic load, but a simple way that you can kind of help.

So maybe when you have a meal, let's say you have a bunch of roasted vegetables and you have white rice, because you made white rice for the family and you don't want to make something separate.

So just have a smaller portion of the white rice, like a higher glycemic food, and then more of the roasted vegetables, which gets you more of the fiber in there.

So thinking about what's the most fibrous element of my meal and have more of that and less of the other elements. So there's little swaps like that that you can do instead of flip-flop.

Sometimes our tendencies have more of the carbohydrate, the high glycemic carbohydrate, and less of the fibrous one. But if you can, in your mind, just flip-flop that.

That's a simple swap that you can do to increase your fiber and lower the glycemic load of your meal.

And really, if half your plate is full of fiber, let's just say that you have half fiber, a quarter protein, and a quarter of that other starchy carbohydrate, that's going to lower your bill for groceries, right?

Because a lot of these fruits and vegetables, you don't have tax on those if you're having to prepare them yourself. And they tend to be less expensive, then protein is a lot more expensive.

So yeah, so maybe that will help with the meal planning, budgeting. We have an episode on that as well.

Awesome. Well, we hope you got some helpful tips today, mamas. And as we just shared with you today, a little bit about glycemic load and just how to incorporate fiber a little bit more into your diet.

Just know that you can take those little steps of becoming better in the way that you fuel yourself and fuel your family. And we just bless you in that. Thanks so much for listening to the Beauty of Better podcast.

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