Day Five: Poop and Fiber

Okay. I'm going to tell you a story about poop, which is going to lead into my next entry, a book review. If you'd rather not get to know me that well, you might want to skip this one and come back a bit later. But I promise it's related, and I do have a point.

So growing up, food was never a priority for my parents. My brother and I never went hungry, but particularly as we got older, it was never given much thought. If it didn't come in a box, if it didn't go in the microwave, if it didn't come when you beckoned on the phone, we generally didn't eat it. By the time I was in high school, the menu was pretty fixed: Mondays were Chinese food, Wednesdays were Boston Market, Fridays were pizza night and most nights in between were a mix of Stouffer's frozen dinners and my Mom's ziti (huge batches of white pasta with jarred sauce and mozzarella-from-a-bag on top that were always in the fridge for the sole purpose of making There's nothing to eat in here! a factual lie). The only veggies we ate were baby carrots with ranch dressing and sad, limp, overcooked green beans. I used to sneak the green beans away from the table in my socks to throw them out later. To this day, I still can't stand the thought of them.

Needless to say, I was chronically constipated for pretty much the first 15 years of my life. And I didn't know any better. No one had ever asked and I'd never thought to tell anyone about my bathroom habits. I just figured that that was the way it was. When I was a teenager, I heavily used laxatives and diet pills, which helped, but of course were shit for my body (no pun, really). And until I met Madeline, I had never known that people pooped Every day! Happily! Easily!

I can't even remember how the topic came up, because really, at what point in your relationship do you go from discreetly checking your breath before the possibility of a kiss to talking about how often you poop? But anyway, she introduced me to the magic that is fiber. My grocery shopping habits began to revolve around fiber content, and suddenly, I too was a happy, daily pooper!

Until I really got into nutrition, though, I never actually looked into how it works. Actually, all this time, I thought that soluble fiber was the the only one that could be used by the body and that insoluble fiber just came along for the ride. That's somewhat true, but doesn't tell the whole picture. Those are the broadest category of classification, and you need both kinds. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and binds to bile (which is made from cholesterol) in your intestine to help it exit your system. It also slows digestion so that you can absorb more nutrients from your food and helps you to feel full and satisfied. Insoluble fiber helps to bulk up your poop and make it pass through your system more easily. Fiber keeps the sewer of your body in good working order.

And that's just one part of it. Diets high in fiber have been attributed to maintaining a healthy weight, lowering blood cholesterol and sugar, reducing your risk of diseases such as diverticulitis and digestive disorders, and may prevent cancer and help you to live longer (Tru fax! Tufts University doctors said so!)¹. All really good stuff. Fiber can only be found in fruits, vegetable and grains. Good, raw sources of soluble fiber include apples, citrus fruits, carrots and flax seed. An assortment of vegetables is your best source of insoluble fiber. You can't just eat apples and broccoli and call it a day, though. If you want to get specific, there are actually six subcategories of fiber and you want to eat a variety of fruits and veggies to get full benefit.

So tl:dr version: eat more fiber!

-Eloise

¹ The Facts on Fiber. (2009). Tufts University Heath and Nutrition Letter, 26(12), 4-5. Retrieved February 5, 2009, from Health Module database. (Document ID 1631975001).