Fiber is the Future

Celery gets a bad rap – for a lot of bad reasons. Maybe you’ve read that celery is a “negative calorie” food – as in you burn more calories chewing a stalk of celery than you actually get from the celery itself. Another constant comment, “oh celery…that’s a waste: just water and nothing else good for you.” So what’s the deal – and how does celery really stack up from a nutrition standpoint?

First of all – celery is a very low calorie food. One medium eight-inch stalk has only 6 calories. Put another way, if you were to cut up and eat one cup of chopped celery, you’d get about 16 calories. That 16 calories might not sound like much – and it’s not – but for almost no caloric intake, you get 1.6 grams of dietary fiber. Not bad considering you’d have to eat 1.5 cups of romaine lettuce, 2 cups of raw spinach or 2 cups of chopped iceberg to get the same amount of fiber.

Some other benefits of celery:

The Fruits & Veggies More Matters campaign offers ten ways to enjoy celery, including:

Celery is available year-round. Try using celery as a base for low-fat chicken salad or tuna salad instead of bread. If you’re looking to lose weight, celery is a great, low-calorie snack (provided you don’t load it up with peanut butter!) Eating two cups of chopped celery gives you more than 10% of your daily recommended intake for fiber – not bad considering you get that for less than 2% of your daily caloric budget (based on an 1,800 calorie per day meal plan for weight loss).

Chia seeds have been in the news lately as a nutritious additive to foods. Although they’ve been part of indigenous Central American diets for millennia, popularity in the US skyrocketed with the 2009 publication of the book Born to Run. Author Christopher McDougall writes about the Tarahumara people of Mexico who are known for their extreme running talents and a diet heavy on the chia seed. From there to shout outs on the Huffington Post and Livestrong.com – and even the American Dietetic Association getting on board – 2009-2010 has been good business for chia seed people.

Chia seeds are small seeds used originally in the diets of Mayan and Aztec populations. They’re touted as a great source of alpha linolenic acid, a healthy omega-3 fatty acid. Chia seeds are also hailed for their high fiber content: the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter (March 2010) says that 1 ounce (3 tablespoons) of chia seeds has 11 grams of fiber. The fiber in chia seeds is almost entirely soluble, meaning that it forms a thick viscous gel when mixed with water. Soluble fiber is the type of fiber that has been shown to have cholesterol lowering properties.

The health claims of chia seeds range from the outlandish to the very plausible. The American Dietetic Association says that chia seeds can help:

We know that a diet high in fiber can help with weight control by promoting satiety – or the feeling of fullness. However, in a 2009 study of 76 people published in Nutrition Research, scientists determined that chia seed does not promote weight loss or alter disease risk factors in overweight adults. So while they might be an interesting addition to traditional foods, there’s no guarantee that chia seeds are a miracle additive.

You can use chia seeds by sprinkling on cereal or in yogurt, adding to breads and muffins or with water for high fiber drinks. You’ve probably even heard of chia seeds indirectly, as the sprouts of chia seed are the same ones used in Chia Pets.

Edamame are out-of-the-shell edible soybeans that are most frequently found in Japanese cuisine. The literal translation of the Japanese name 枝豆 means “beans on branches”. Edamame are a dietitian’s dream: they are a high-fiber, complete protein food with a moderate amount of calories that make for a satiating snack or appetizer. One cup of edamame in the shell has 190 calories, 8 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein.

Soy foods and soybeans (including edamame) are unique in that they are a very rare non-animal source of complete protein. To be a complete protein, a food has to have all nine essential amino acids in its protein profile. This makes edamame and other soy foods an excellent source of protein for those adhering to a vegetarian diet.

To prepare edamame, boil the pods until they are only slightly firm, drain, rinse to cool and eat right out of the pod. Try sprinkling edamame on salads, or dry-roasted and salted as a snack (available at Trader Joe’s.) You can also blend boiled edamame beans into dips and casseroles. Here’s a great Edamame Dip recipe from Alton Brown of the Food Network: Edamame Dip Recipe.

Irish Soda Bread is one of the most simple, quick bread recipes you can make.  It requires no yeast, takes less than five minutes to prepare and can be easily adapted as a high-fiber recipe. The story goes that St. Patrick was  holding a piece of soda bread in his hand as he drove the snakes out of Ireland…whether or not this is true, traditional Irish Soda Bread has only four ingredients:

Here’s a recipe that is a little doctored, with added oatmeal and whole wheat flour to increase overall fiber content:

Brown Soda Bread

Recipe by Margaret M. Johnson from The Irish Spirit: Recipes Inspired by the Legendary Drinks of Ireland (Chronicle Books, 2007).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the whole-wheat flour and 1 cup of the oats. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk and egg. With a wooden spoon stir until the mixture forms a soft dough. With floured hands, form the dough into two rounds. Transfer the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the remaining one tablespoon oatmeal. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are browned. Remove from the oven and let the loaves cool on a wire rack.

Nutrition Analysis

Makes 2 loaves (12 servings), per serving:

Trying to increase dietary fiber intake usually means adding more fruit to your diet. As a rule, fruit has more fiber per serving (3-5 grams/serving) than do vegetables (1-3 grams/serving). But what kind of fruit is best if you’re concerned about fiber? When we’re talking about fruit, there are generally four categories the fruit can fall under:

Fresh and frozen fruit are usually identical when it comes to fiber content. Canned fruits tend to have the same amount of fiber as their fresh/frozen counterparts, however, there is often added sugar (from syrup or juice) that increases calorie content of canned fruits.

Dried fruit is a little trickier – the dehydration process removes the water-holding capabilities of fiber. Dried fruit tends to be lower in fiber per serving than the fresh fruit it came from. Certain types of dried fruit are often sweetened with extra sugar (think dried pineapple and cranberries), which increases calorie counts and decreases overall nutritive value.

Additionally,  because of the compact nature of dried fruit, it’s easy to eat a LOT of calories worth of dried fruit in a short period of time. You can pop 130 calories of raisins (1/4 cup’s worth) in a few bites; whereas, eating 130 calories of grapes (about 1 cup’s worth) takes a longer amount of time, meaning you’re likely to consume less calories overall with fresh vs. dried fruit.

So when weighing your fruit and fiber options – fresh is usually best (with frozen options high up on the list too). Compared to dried fruits, fresh fruit: