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Fiber

If you get an adequate amount of fiber each day you can reduce excess weight, keep disease at bay, and never worry about constipation. It's recommended you get a min of 25 grams a day; the average American only consumes around 10 grams.

Start to think of fiber as your body's janitorial staff. Insoluble fiber puffs up in your intestines, like a sponge, and moves digestive and cellular debris out. Soluble fiber mixes with the water from your food to make a gel. This mops up fat and sugar, helping to lower your cholesterol and regulate your blood glucose levels.

Fiber contains no calories, takes up more space than food without fiber, and moves more slowly through your tract. You'll eat less and be satiated for longer!

Insoluble fiber sources

• wheat; 1 cup buckwheat cereal= 10 grams fiber
• corn
• oat bran
• nuts; 24 almonds= 5 grams
• flaxseed
• skins/peels of many fruits and veggies (apple, potato); medium apple= 4 grams fiber
• dark leafy greens

Soluble fiber sources

• legumes (peas, beans); 3 tbs of lima beans= 13 grams fiber
• barley
• oat bran
• nuts; 30 peanuts= 5.5 grams fiber
• many fruits and veggies (carrots, oranges, inside of apples)

You produce more than a thousand pounds of poop every year, make it easy on yourself and get plenty of fiber!

"Natural" Chicken

I had 3 choices today when I went shopping for chicken. Organic, all natural with no hormones added, and the last was just plain old chicken. I couldn't resist the sale price of the all natural chicken, I fell into temptation!

For future reference, guidelines state that any product can be labeled as "natural" if it contains no artificial flavoring, coloring, chemical preservative, synthetic ingredient, and has been minimally processed- it has only been handled as necessary to slaughter, clean, and make it ready for cooking. It says nothing about how an animal was raised, what it was fed, if it received antibiotics, or if it received hormones.

As for the statement "no hormones added" on the package? Sordid sales technique. Federal law prohibits the use of hormones in poultry (and pork).

So...what exactly made this all natural chicken different than the plain old chicken? Pretty much nothing. I can only take solace in the money I saved over not buying organic, which I'm not.

Yolks

Eggs are a super nutritious food, even the yolk. So many people only dine on the whites and toss the yolks to the dogs. But if your relatively healthy you can consume 1-2 yolks a day without risk to your cholesterol level or heart health. The yolk is packed with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, omega-3s, vitamin A, D, E, and B12.

Concerned about your heart and arteries?

Okay, so the 200 mg of cholesterol and 2 grams of saturated fat in each yolk make it sound like I'm lying to you. However, most of the cholesterol in your blood comes from your liver, not the cholesterol you eat (emphasis on the word most). You should be more concerned with the saturated fat content of foods, that's what will drive up your blood cholesterol levels. To this point, thank you chickens for putting more healthy fat than saturated fat in your yolks!