Don’t wait until you’ve had a heart attack to start boosting your fiber intake! Dietary fiber is the term for several materials that make up the parts of plants your body can’t digest. Fiber is classified as soluble (can be dissolved in water) or insoluble. Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, beans, peas, rice bran, barley, citrus fruits, strawberries and apples. Foods high in insoluble fiber include whole-wheat breads, wheat cereals, wheat bran, rye, rice, barley, most other grains, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower and apple skin.
Read Nutrition Facts and ingredient labels carefully. The American Heart Association <www.heart.org> cautions that many commercial oat bran and wheat bran products (muffins, chips, waffles) contain very little bran and not much fiber. These products also may be high in sodium and saturated fat.
The Heart Association recommends obtaining fiber from foods rather than from fiber supplements. A person who needs 2,000 calories daily to maintain a healthy body weight should eat 6 to 8 servings of grains (at least half the servings should be whole-grain foods) and 8 to 10 servings total of vegetables and fruits (about a half-cup cup counts as a serving; for leafy greens, count 1 cup as a serving).