Why your Smoothies can make you fat:
When you juice or blend your food you destroy fiber. (Never mind any added sweeteners)
Do not juice any of your food – it breaks down the fiber
It is shocking that many people all over the world consume far less than half of the recommended minimum amount of fiber in their daily diet. [1][2] (Fiber is found in vegetables and fruits. Fiber is also found, to a lesser extent, in nuts and whole grains.)
Fiber is crucial to your weight and health
Fiber is known to assist your body to maintain a healthy weight. Fiber is proven to lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
Many vegetables, fruits and nuts contain both types of fiber, Soluble fiber (oats, peas, beans, bananas, apples) and Insoluble fiber (apples, oranges, green vegetables, wheat, nuts and bran)
Eating foods high in fibre will help you feel fuller for longer and increase the health of your gut. Fiber slows down digestion, so when you eat carbs, the sugar from the carbs, enters your bloodstream slower.
There are so many benefits of a high fiber diet but managing body weight and blood sugar levels are the most important for most people. Of course a healthy bowel and lowered cholesterol levels do not hurt either.
What you should (not) do:
- You should not increase your fiber source from grains but rather from raw fruit and vegetables.
- If your gut is already suffering you may wish to increase your healthy gut bacteria by consuming pro biotic foods like yogurt, pickles or sauerkraut. You may also want to ease into additional fiber slowly by adding cooked pumpkin, squash and marrows to your diet.
- Avoid increasing the amount of bran muffins and even cereals as these processed foods may not readily add as much value to the general health of your gut as fresh fruits and vegetables would.
High fiber foods are: Vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, peas and green beans. Nuts like almonds and almost all fruits.
Fiber rich foods also contain the majority of the vitamins, antioxidants and other nutrients your healthy diet requires. Eating foods low in fiber not only increases obesity but they increase the chances of other disease states such as cancer , diabetes and others.
Over cooking your food can also destroy fiber
If you boil vegetables this helps break down the cell walls of the plant and also makes certain vegetables easier to eat. If you over cook vegetables you are just breaking down the nutrients with no more benefit because the cell walls have already broken down as much as they are going to. Boiling vegetables leaks more nutrients than microwaving or steaming.
TIP: Save the water from your boiled vegetables, add some honey and serve chilled!
read more about Fiber & Nutrition
[1] http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/2012/05/28/jn.112.160176.full.pdf
[2] www.who.int/nutrition/publications/nutrientrequirements/healthydiet_factsheet394.pdf
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