Fiber Check List

Diets higher in fiber are being linked with all kinds of health benefits, one of which might be the prevention of bowel or colon cancer.  You might think that you’re getting enough dietary fiber each day, but chances are that you’re not.  There’s more to getting your fair share of dietary fiber than a bowl of bran flakes each morning.

HOW MUCH FIBER?
Adults should aim for about 30 grams of fiber each day, about double what the average Canadian gets right now.  Some days you get a little more, other days a little less.  On average, it should work out about right.  Use the fiber lists below to see if you’re roughing up your diet enough.  Keep in mind these are approximate amounts of fiber that may change as more is learned about the fiber content of foods.  Get a variety of fiber from grain foods like breads and cereals, plus fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Milk and Milk Products
All milk & milk products        0

Meat, Poultry and Fish
All meats, poultry and fish        0

Whole Grain Foods 
1 slice whole wheat bread    2.0
1 slice rye bread            1.0
1 slice white bread            0.4
½ c. (125ml) brown rice, cooked    2.4
½ c. (125ml) white rice, cooked    0.3
1 c. (250ml) whole wheat pasta cooked  3.9
1c. (250ml) regular pasta, cooked    1.2
1 bran muffin            2.5

Breakfast cereals
Regular flakes & crispies (corn rice, oats, Wheat) 1c. (250ml)     traces
Bran flakes, ¾ c (200ml)        4.8
All bran, ½ c. (125ml)                   13.8
Whole grain bite size, ¾ c (200ml)  3.2
Rolled oats, cooked, 1 c (250ml)    2.8
Oat bran  cooked, ¾ c (200ml)        3.5
Mixed Grain cooked, ¾ c (200ml)    3.0

Legumes
Baked beans, ½ cu (125ml)        8.8
Dried peas, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    4.7
Kidney beans, cooked, ½ c (125ml) 5.8
Lentils, cooked, ½ cup cooked    6.8
Navy beans, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    6.0
Chili with beans, 1 cup (250ml)    3.8
Lentil/bean casserole, 1 serving      15.0

Nuts
Almonds, shelled, 10 nuts        1.1
Peanuts, shelled, ½ c (125ml)  6.2
Filberts/Hazelnuts shelled 10 nuts    0.8
Trail Mix, ½ c (125ml)        5.0

Fruits
Apple
Fresh with skin, 1 med        3.5
Fresh without skin, 1 med    2.7
Apple juice, 1 c (250ml        0.8
Applesauce, ½ c (125ml)    1.8
Apricots
Dried, 5 halves      4.0
Fresh, 3                1.8
Banana, 1 med       2.4
Blueberries, ½ c (125ml)    4.0
Cantaloupe, ¾ of whole     1.3
Cherries, sweet, 10            1.2
Dates, 3                1.9
Grapefruit, ½            1.6
Grapes, with skin, 1 cup (250ml)    2.2
Mango, 1 peeled            2.6
Orange, 1 med            2.6
Papaya, 1 peeled            2.8
Peach
Fresh, 1 with skin        1.9
Fresh, 1 without skin        1.9
Pear, fresh 1 med with skin   4.7
Pineapple, ½ c (125ml)        1.1
Plums, 5 Damson            1.7
Prunes, 3                4.0
Raisins, ¼ c (50ml)            3.7
Raspberries, ½ c (125ml)        3.3
Strawberries, 1 c (250ml)        3.1

Vegetables
Asparagus, cooked, 4 spears    2.0
Bean sprouts, raw. ½ c (125ml)    1.0
Beans, cooked, ½ c (125ml)
Lima                4.7
Green or yellow     1.6
Broccoli
Cooked, ½ c (125ml)    2.2
Raw, 1 med spear        4.2
Brussels sprouts, cooked, 1/2c    4.0
Cabbage, cooked ½ c (125ml)    1.8
Carrots
Cooked, ½ c (125ml)   2.3
Raw, 1 med            2.2

Miscellaneous Dishes
Soups, 1 cup (250ml)
Beef and Barley       5.3
Split Pea                5.4
Minestrone              7.0
Cauliflower, ½ c (125ml)     2.0
Celery, raw, ½ c (125ml)     1.0
Corn
Cooked, ½ c (125ml)        2.4
Raw,1 ear            2.2
Onions, raw, ½ c (125ml)        1.1
Parsnips, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    2.9
Peas, green, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    3.8
Potatoes, 1 med with skin        3.5
Spinach, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    2.2
Squash, cooked, ½ c (125ml)    1.3
Sweet Potatoes (Yams) ½ med    2.7
Tomato, 1 raw med                   1.8
Turnip, cooked, ½ c (125ml)        2.3
Chili with beans, 1cup (250ml)      3.8
Lentil/bean casserole, 1 serving      15.0

A High Fiber Day
It may be difficult to imagine what a “30 gram fiber day” is really like.  It need not be unusual, as this sample day’s menu shows.

BREAKFAST
½ cup grape fruit            1.6
¾  c of cooked oatmeal    3.5
¼ c dried cranberries        3.7
½ cup (125ml) milk             0

LUNCH
Tuna Sandwich
– tuna                            0
– 2 slices whole wheat bread   4
1 tomato, sliced            1.8
1 glass water                  0
1 pear                          4.7

DINNER
1 bowl of chili with kidney beans    3.8
2 slices of crusty bread         0.6
Raw carrots and celery sticks    3.
1 cup (250ml) milk             0

1 serving of apple crisp (approx)    3.3

TOTAL FIBER FOR DAY         30 gm

How to Detoxify Your Home

You may not even realize it, but a silent killer could be right inside your home, under the kitchen sink, in the broom closet, in the bathroom and in our bedrooms.

The chemicals in the household products we buy in the grocery stores and pharmacies can actually slowly erode our immune system until our health is destroyed.

We must get serious about removing ALL harmful and toxic substances from our homes if we want to become healthy.  You must clean up the poisons beginning right now. For more information on removing toxicity from your home, go HERE.

Here is a list of the toxins I removed from our home:

Signs & Symptoms of Toxicity

How do you know if your body is toxic?  Or, how do you know if you could benefit from Cleansing? 

You may not recognize the interesting possible signs and symptoms of toxicity in your body.

Toxicology textbooks list the first symptoms of chronic poisoning as low energy, fatigue, muscle weakness, inability to concentrate and intestinal complaints.  These symptoms are virtually identical to those experienced by the chronically ill.– Jeffrey Bland, PhD, The 21-Day Rejuvenation Diet Program, p. 23

Some of the symptoms of toxicity you should look out for are:

Toxicity & How You Get It

How does my body become polluted with sludge?  How do I become toxic?  Where did I pollute myself?

If you’re not cleansing your body regularly, you could be ‘recycling’ toxic blood through your system over and over again?

Cleansing helps to reduce the toxic overload in your body.  It is all about cleaning garbage and ‘sludge’ from the body and giving your body a chance to work for you like it is designed. Sludge could be actually killing you.

There are 3 ways we come into contact with toxicity – we touch it, breath it, and eat or drink it.

Dr. Gordon Chang, PhD in physiology and Biomedical engineering from the University of Toronto, has written:

“Toxins can enter the human body via a number of convenient pathways; through the lungs when we breathe, through the skin by contact, or through the GI tract from the food and drink we consume.  The toxins are then metabolically processed by the three major organs of detoxification:  the liver, the lungs and the kidneys so that they can be excreted from the body with other waste material.  That is IF the toxins do not become stored in the cells of the body through toxic overload.”

After a few years of constant exposure, you can be sure that your body will break down somehow.  It may start with allergies, then progress to migraines, arthritis or insomnia and on it goes.  You jump onto the medical merry-go-round, the doctor gets busy treating your symptoms with drugs, and then has to treat the side-effects of those drugs with more drugs.

It makes a lot of sense that if you could identify and stop the poisons, eliminate the culprits, and pull the residue out from your body itself, then slowly but surely your body could get well.

Here is a list of just some of the culprits:

1. Heavy metals from:  dental amalgam fillings i.e. mercury poisoning.  See Heavy Metal Detox Recipes.  Replace mercury fillings with composite fillings with no mercury, no fluoride, and no bisphenyl A.  Lakes and rivers are now found to have toxic levels of mercury and other contaminants, and the EPA in the US has issued warnings on unsafe mercury levels found in fish coming from lakes and rivers in the US.  Pregnant mothers have been warned about consuming fish where the mercury toxicity can damage the unborn child.
2. Body products – nail polish, nail polish remover, deodorants, make-up, lotions, soaps, gels, anti-bacterial soaps, mosquito sprays/lotion, etc.
3. Toxic Hazards in the home:  lead pipes, fluoridated and chlorinated water, formaldehyde from new carpets, carpet adhesives, teflon from scotch guard in carpets and furniture, paints, car exhaust fumes and even cigarette smoke.
4. Household toxic cleaning chemicals and products like laundry soaps, cleaners, sprays, etc.
5. Vaccinations – see the Center for Disease Control’s information sheet at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm for a listing of ingredients in common vaccines.  Toxic ingredients include MSG, aluminum, thimerosol (mercury derivative), formaldehyde, live bacterial strains, etc.  Since more vaccines are being produced and promoted rapidly, it is practically impossible to keep up with the various toxic additives.  The adult body is not designed to process these ingredients as food much less an infant, so we can practically conclude that these additives are toxic to the body.  No child should ever have a vaccine with these ingredients injected into their body.
   
6. Mold – in our food and in our homes.  Dr. Tullio Simoncini, an oncologist from Rome, has discovered that fungus and mold could be the essence of every cancer in the body.  Dr. Hulda Clark believes that mold makes toxins and shuts down parts of the liver.  She finds mold in nuts, bread stored in plastic bags, in peanut butters, and other preserved foods we buy in the grocery store.  Dr. Clark recommends adding a sprinkling of Vitamin C powder to hinder mold in some food products after opening them.
7. Food additives – MSG (and all its forms), preservatives, food in packages, boxes, cans, etc.
8. Toxic air inside the home – drywall, carpet (formaldehyde), new furniture, lack of circulating air, toxic room fresheners, bathroom fresheners, etc.  See also www.curenaturalicancro.com/pdf/fungi-nexus.pdf for information on the toxic effects of indoor molds.
9. Toxic air outside the home – lawn and garden chemicals including pesticides and sprays, fertilizers, insecticide aerial spray for mosquitoes or other pests in the cities, and farm land spraying of herbicides, etc.
10. Toxicity in the workplace – enclosed office workplaces with re-circulated and trapped air, glues, thinners, oils, paints, cleaners.
11. Prescription medication and drugs– All drugs are harmful in some way and cause side-effects.  They must go through the liver for the body to process and detoxify.  Years of accumulated poisons will cause a problem in your liver.  There are no safe drugs.  Read the Physician’s Desk Reference (side-effects section) of any single drug you know.  Every person should read the side-effects section before taking any drug.Prescription drugs are administered as early as 1 day old up to 100+ years old, so BEWARE!
12. City water – polluted with fluoride and chlorox bleach (added at the pumping stations) which are deadly toxins.
13. Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF’s) – high-power wires (above ground and underground), cell phones, televisions, electronic products.  Check out yours with a gauss meter.
14. Xeno-estrogens – toxins that imitate estrogens.  These may be linked to high rates of breast cancer, endometriosis and reproductive problems in women.  These are often petrochemical derivatives that mimic estrogens in the body, they are not biodegradable, and are stored in human fat tissue, and even can change our genetics.  Xeno-estrogens are now being studied as bringing their own health threat to the human race.  Xeno-estrogens are found in plastic wrap (cling wrap), and heating food in plastic containers.
15. Toxic Hazards you do to Yourself – smoking,  hair dye,  tattoo dyes,  addictive alcohol or coffee drinking, lawn pesticides, etc.

To start on the road to health, you must detoxify from poisons, toxins, pollutants, etc.  If you have not done so already, read about the Signs and Symptoms of Toxicity to get a list of symptoms that could indicate that your body NEEDS a spring cleaning.  If you have a health problem of any kind, check this out, and do yourself the biggest favor of your life and get yourself on a cleansing and detoxing program today.

YOU CAN GET STARTED RIGHT HERE  Please see my post on my Top Supplement Pick for 2020, a plant based product right from the earth, with both DETOX and Nutrient DELIVERY.  Seriously it’s an amazing slow detox product for mopping up heavy metals, pollutants and toxins from your body.  Black Oxygen Organics is my pick for everyone.   Here’s my link to buy.

Going Beyond the Cleanse

Cleansing is not a magic bullet, or a one-time thing.  It actually happens as you live a healthy lifestyle with a healthy diet.  A healthy diet is primarily plant food, living food.  Living food nourishes the cells that make up your body.  Occasional cleansing between stints of binge eating of dead, fast food, is not a path for good health.

Following are Excerpts from “Back to the Garden” magazine, March/April 2007.  Going Beyond the Cleanse by Michael Donaldson, PhD.

Constipation is a major issue in America. More than 4 million Americans have frequent constipation and spend $725 million on laxative products each year. Constipation is more than just annoying. If your colon isn’t working right, toxins tend to get reabsorbed by the body. Three separate studies among Japanese, African Americans, and Caucasians show that people who suffer from constipation or use laxatives very often have at least a 200 percent increased risk of colon cancer.

Along with constipation, several other common health issues in the intestinal tract (ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, diverticular disease, hemorrhoids, and irritable bowel syndrome) affect about 16 million people in America.

So many of us have unhealthy digestive tracts. What do we do to regain our health in this area? The good news is that whatever helps our intestinal tract also helps the rest of the body, so it is a win-win situation. There isn’t one treatment for the heart, another for the lungs, a third for the immune system, and so on. What is healthy for one part is healthy for the whole body. What damages one part hurts the whole body.

Dr. Donaldson lists some major components in a healthy person’s life – going beyond the basic cleanse. It is the diet that supports colon health day in and day out.

1. Exercise – this stimulates peristalsis and helps with all areas of our health.
2. Fruits & Vegetables – essential for fiber, softer stools, finding up cholesterol, detoxifying chemicals from the liver, vitamins & minerals providing essential nutrition for the cells.
3. Vegetable Juices – helps any inflammation in the bowel, where the lining in the GI tract can be replaced naturally in 4 days.
4. Meat – bad for you, avoid it.
5. Water – keep urine a pale pink color which indicates that you have consumed enough liquid.
6. Flax – good source of soluble and insoluble fiber plus essential fatty acids and other antioxidant properties.
7. Omega 3 Fats – fights inflammation in the body.
8. Vitamin D – lack of Vitamin D has been related to some cancers and heart disease.
9. Probiotics – beneficial bacteria are our first line of defense, strengthening the immune system, also aiding in fighting inflammation.
10. Body, Soul, Spirit – Freedom and healing is having a deep relationship with Jesus Christ.

[Michael Donaldson, Ph.D. is Research Director of the Hallelujah Acres Foundation. His research studies have been published in many medical and nutrition journals, including BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Nutrition & Food Science, and Nutrition Journal.]

Note from Lyn:  My most recent constipation remedy is quite simple.  Anyone who has never gotten relief from the traditional constipation formulas can try this simple DIY recipe.

Creamsicle Constipation Remedy:

1 heaping teaspoon beet powder (often found in health food stores, or online)

1 rounded tsp magnesium (I use “Calm” powder)

1-2 tsp acacia fiber powder (found in health food stores)

Mix these 3 ingredients together and place in a large glass.  Add approx. 1/3 cup of lukewarm/warm water to begin activating the mixture.  The mixture will become a light pink foam.  Add approx. 1/2 cup of room temperature water and keep mixing.  Drink it down.  Chase it all down with another glass of water.

This is the most delicious constipation drink I have ever tasted.  I find it begins working right away and good results often happen by the next day.  I find that taking this Constipation mixture mid afternoon on an empty stomach works well.  I hope you find it as tasty and effective as I do!