Fabulous Fiber

My Arkansas grandmother died of colon cancer in her 60s.  I was in college at the time and had always been very close to her -- so her death at such a young age was very hard.  My grandmother was a strong and deeply caring woman.  As church visitor, she regularly ministered to the sick and addicted.  She was an inspiring teacher, bringing two hundred adults to her classes every Sunday morning.  She helped so many people return to fulfilling lives -- and yet she was unable to halt or even slow the progress of her own disease.  Her deep faith and strength of character were not enough to sustain her physical well-being. 

Like many people who come face-to-face with the death of a loved one, I was probably searching for answers at some level.  Perhaps the search wasn't active, but I know I asked myself why such a good woman suffered so terribly from a disease that ultimately caused her death.  Was there any way this outcome could have been prevented?  In some ways, my reading and research into health in the early 70s was a search to answer those questions. 

The health literature at the time seemed to take two paths, one a more spiritual journey, focused on meditation and bio-feedback and the other a more "material" journey focued on nutrition, body mechanics and chemistry.  My grandmother had a deeper, stronger faith than anyone I have ever known.  As I said, her faith carried many others through their debilitating health and addiction issues.  I was inspired by her in this area, and as much as I enjoyed reading about the mind-body connection and the various forms of spirituality that were of interest at that time, I gravitated toward more practical and material wellness literature.  A recurring theme that jumped out at me was the lack of fiber in the typical American diet.  This theme hit home as the point was repeatedly made that the incidence of cancer, particularly colon cancer, was dramatically lower in areas where people still lived according to a "traditional" diet, that is, whole, natural fiber-rich foods.

Fiber -- the indigestible part of the food we eat, some water soluble and some not -- turns out to be important in digestion and specifically important for colon health.  Much of what I read 40 years ago was probably anecdotal, intuitive or deductive, but the importance of fiber has now been documented.  The American Dietetic Association recommends a daily allowance of 25-30 grams of fiber per day, but despite what we know, the average American consumes much less.  My grandmother's southern diet was full of white flour and sugar products, bacon and bacon fat and was certainly very deficient in fiber.  Although I'm sure there was no single cause of my grandmother's colon cancer, her fiber-deficient diet seemed to me to be deeply implicated in her disease.  Even after her diagnosis, there was no one in the south at that time who would have recommended dietary changes to incorporate more fiber.  100% whole grain breads would never have been recommended as a replacement for white pull-apart rolls.

Over time, I changed my own diet to incorporate many more high fiber foods.  It became routine for me to search out 100% whole grain breads, which at first I didn't like as well as the fluffy white breads I had grown up with.  Tastes do change over time, though, and nowadays, I prefer grainy breads and pastas to their white counterparts.  I learned from my own experience that I felt more satisfied after eating a fiber-rich meal -- and stayed satisfied longer.  I had reached my first milestone on my path toward better health: I had understood the importance of fiber and had incorporated that understanding into a lifetime eating practice that worked for me.  I made a rule for myself which I follow to this day (when I'm not being lazy), that I would allow myself to eat as much as I would like as long as it was at a certain level of quality -- that is, for example, I would eat as much bread as I would like but only bread that was 100% whole grain.  This effectively eliminated those pesky, nutritionally depleted, restaurant roll baskets!

My grandmother was first diagnosed in her 50s, and the entire time she was in and out of hospitals, she was never introduced to the kind of information that might have caused her to adjust her diet.  I am now 62 and have lived two thirds of my life paying attention to the fiber component in my diet.  I believe it has been an effective weight maintenance tool, effective in maintaining the health of my digestive tract, especially my colon, and I have rarely left a table hungry.  On the contrary, I have enjoyed many delicious, nutritious and satisfying meals without gaining lots of weight by simply keeping my focus on the fiber content of the meal.

So, the first pillar in my health Rx: Enrich your meals and snacks with Fabulous Fiber.