Three out of four children aren’t getting enough fiber, which puts them at high risk for chronic constipation, among other things. Here are some ways to make sure your child isn’t at risk and how to incorporate more fiber in your family’s diet.
Why Fiber is Important
Fiber is the part of natural foods (plant foods, the only place fiber is found) that isn’t digested. It provides “roughage” for everything that you eat and helps things move through the digestive process. In Dr. Rex Russell’s book, What The Bible Says About Healthy Living, he notes the importance of fiber based on a group of African men, some living in Africa and some attending school in England. The African natives ate a traditional high-fiber diet and rarely needed medical attention. The Africans who were at school in England were enjoying processed foods without fiber. They suffered from episodes of appendicitis, hemorrhoids, ulcers, and gallstones.
The term “processed foods” refers to products made with grains that are heavily processed and very far from their natural state. These include products like enriched macaroni, cookies, cakes, pies, and cereals.
Inadequate fiber intake is also believed to contribute to, and sometimes even cause, heart disease, colon cancer, high blood pressure, and adult onset diabetes. Without sufficient fiber to move food through the body, toxins and bodily waste can fester inside the body for extended periods of time.
A lack of fiber also highly contributes to obesity problems in America. Part of this results from the negligible amount of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed by Americans. Both fruits and vegetables, along with other natural foods, contain two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble is the kind of fiber that changes as it moves through your digestive system, while insoluble doesn’t change; both are equally important.
Soluble fiber is most often found in dried beans, oats, barley, fruits and vegetables. It stabilizes blood sugar, reduces blood pressure and cholesterol, and speeds up your body’s transit time (the time it takes to move food through your digestive system and complete the digestion process). Most Americans’ transit time is around 50 to 60 hours. That’s a long time, considering the normal transit time should be around 12 to 18 hours. (If you’re interested in finding out your child’s transit time, watch her bowels after she’s eaten corn. Since corn does not digest, you will see it in her bowels and be able to estimate her transit time starting from when she ate the corn to when it was in her bowel.
How Much Fiber Do Children Need?
Currently, children ages four to 19 years get around 12 grams of dietary fiber per day, according to Dr. Christine Williams, previously with the American Health Foundation. Dr. Williams recommends that children get at least their “age plus five” grams of fiber per day. For eight year olds, this means at least 13 grams of dietary fiber per day.
A minimum of five fruits and vegetables per day, as recommended by the USDA Food Pyramid, will give your child a large percentage of his necessary fiber. The remaining amount should come from sources such as whole grain products, beans, nuts, and seeds.
Source: Pediatrics for parents