Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Hello all and thanks so much for filling my inbox with amazing notes of well-wishing. It will never cease to amaze me how many absolutely incredible people I have met through my decade as a Dietitian and it was fantastic to hear from so many of you.

As I write I am sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. The boys are eating scrambled eggs with cheese, a banana and some skim milk. Many of you will quickly be able to guess what my breakfast looks like. Ahhhhh, my wonder food - Kellogg's All Bran Bran Buds. An entire blog can easily be written about beloved Bran Buds.

All of those anatomy and physiology classes I took? The hours spent in the lab studying cadavers? All the organic chemistry and bio chem classes I sat through? It all comes down to this. FIBER IS KING!

Fiber can help lower cholesterol and blood pressure. I feel that I see better cholesterol results when I spend my time talking about fiber with clients than if I spent the entire time talking about fat. Most adults should be getting about 25-35 grams of fiber/day. The clients I see for the first time are maybe, just maybe getting in about 8-10/day.

My love affair with Bran Buds has been going on for years. 1/3 cup has 13 grams of fiber. Imagine - one serving/day and you are half-way to your daily goal! Remember, fiber is going to affect your GI transit time (fancy way of saying your poop is going to change) Finding the right balance is a bit of an art. For example (forgive me Todd) - I can easily eat 1 cup every morning and get the desired results. Todd maxes out at about 1/2 cup. Much more and his gut is not happy. Oddly, he tests his limit out every so often. I don't get it.

Start out with 1/4-1/3 cup. Mix it in with another cereal you like (currently my household is LOVING Kashi Autumn Wheat)and some skim milk. See how you do with that amount over the next few days and slowly increase the amount until you figure out what is a decent serving for you. For those of you who can't tolerate milk, try mixing some in with your yogurt. If you are lactose intolerant, it is possible that while you can't tolerate milk, you will be able to tolerate some yogurt. Another note: DRINK LOTS OF WATER so you don't get "stopped up".

Bran Buds are certainly not the only way to get your fiber in and they do have High Fructose Corn Syrup in them so if that is something your are avoiding there are other choices out there. In fact, I will post some other options in the next couple of days.

In Health,
Yo