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How to Sneak More Fiber Into Your Diet

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Here’s another reason to up your intake of fruits, veggies, and whole grains: People who eat more fiber are less likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study in the journal Stroke.

Researchers looked at eight observational studies published between 1990 and 2012. They found that each seven-gram increase in daily fiber was associated with a seven percent reduction in first-time stroke risk. The mechanism is likely related to some of the known risk factors for a stroke, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, says study co-author Victoria Burley, PhD, senior lecturer at the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds in England. Not only has fiber been shown to help with high blood pressure and cholesterol, but it’s also fills you up and keeps you satiated, which may lead you to consume fewer overall calories, says Burley.

But this doesn’t mean that adding a couple of fiber-filled snack bars to your diet for a few weeks will cut your stroke risk or, if you’ve already had one, prevent you from having another. These studies analyzed long-term eating patterns and only assessed first-time stroke risk. Plus, you should opt for natural sources of the nutrient over those fiber-enriched foods you see at the grocery store since researchers aren’t 100 percent sure whether it’s the fiber or something else in the foods that slashes your odds of having a stroke, says Burley.

While it should be easy enough to fill your plate with fiber-rich foods like fruits, veggies, whole grain pastas, and brown rice, most Americans are still only getting about half of the recommended 25 grams of daily dietary fiber, says Burley. Not sure how much food will add up to 25 grams of fiber? If you aim for 3 servings of fruit and 4 servings of veggies per day, then fill in the gaps with 3-6 servings of whole grains, beans and legumes, you should be good, says Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA.

To prove just how simple (and delicious) it can be to get your fill, we put together three daily meal plans that each add up to your recommended 25 grams of fiber:

Day 1:

Breakfast: Gingersnap Oatmeal (9.1g)

Lunch: Black Bean Burger (8.7g)

Snack: Handful of almonds (1 oz = 3.5g)

Dinner: Whole Wheat Pasta With Walnuts, Spinach, and Mozzarella (6g)

Total Fiber: 27.3g

Day 2: 

Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros (4.5g)

Lunch: Grilled Panzanella Salad (11.2g)

 Snack: A medium apple with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (6.5g)

Dinner: Chicken Spinach Pita Pizza (6.5g)

Total Fiber: 28.7g

Day 3: 

Breakfast: Grilled Banana Sandwiches (6.4g)

Lunch: The Tom Boy Sandwich (7.4g)

 Snack: Banana (3g)

Dinner: Stuffed Artichokes (10.4g)

Total Fiber: 27.2g

photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

More from Women’s Health:
Fiber Foods Help You Slim Down
Add This Secret Weapon to Your Diet 
The Best Fiber Foods

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Trick Yourself Into Feeling Full

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Wish you could last longer between meals? Fake a bigger serving size the next time you eat. Regardless of your portion size, if you believe you’ve eaten a lot, you’ll feel less hungry later than if you thought your serving was on the smaller side, according to research in the journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers at the University of Bristol showed volunteers small or large portions of soup just before lunch, and then altered the amount of soup they actually ate using a hidden pump that could replenish or drain a soup bowl without the volunteer noticing. Two to three hours after lunch, volunteers who had seen a bigger portion of soup reported much less hunger than those who had been shown the smaller portion.

The authors of the study say that these results reveal how memory processes contribute to feelings of satiety after a meal. “The emotional satisfaction from feeling like you had a big meal may be more important than how much you eat,” says Lisa Drayer R.D., author of The Beauty Diet (not affiliated with the study).

So how can you reap the benefits of this portion control stunt without a hidden soup pump? It’s all about your plating, says Christine Avanti, certified nutritionist, and author of Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food. Try these seven tricks:

Pile on the volume
Make sure to pile on foods that have a lot volume, rather than denser, smaller foods, Avanti advises. For example: “A slice of salmon, asparagus, and a baked potato looks like more than a piece of pizza, but it’s far less caloric,” she says.

Fill up on greens first
When serving dinner, fill half your plate with greens before piling on the main courses, Avanti says. Most vegetables have a lot of volume and the more plate real estate they take up, the more robust and filling your meal appears. Plus, veggies are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals—other ingredients that can signal your body you are getting enough to eat. Divide the other half of your plate by filling ¼ with protein like chicken or fish and the remaining ¼ with a high-fiber starch like sweet potatoes, she says.

Order the soup
“The concept of soup is that you can load it up with veggies and broth and although it weighs a lot, it isn’t high in calories,” Avanti says. And go ahead and ask for the big bowl—“One large bowl of soup is well under 400 calories,” she says. Perfect for making yourself believe that you’re eating a lot. Just be smart about your soup choice. Choose a broth-based soup with lots of veggies rather than a cream-based soup like clam chowder or broccoli cheese, which is loaded with calories and will defeat the purpose.

Shrink your plates
Eat off saucer-size plates—about six inches in diameter—rather than the bigger plates from the same collection. Researchers from Cornell University found that people who ate hamburgers off of saucers thought they were eating an average of 18 percent more calories than they really were. The people who ate off 12-inch diameter plates, however, were not so deluded.

Toss your bowls
The bigger the bowl, the more you’ll put it in. So when you’re eating foods you tend to gulp, like cereal or ice cream, use a teacup or mug as a serving dish. Save the big bowls for salads and broth-based soups.

Drink from tall glasses
Your tumblers may look short and squat, but they can hold a lot of liquid. People pour about 19 percent more liquid into short, wide glasses than they do in tall ones, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Or brains focus more on something’s height than its width, so short glasses don’t appear as full to us.

Choose the teaspoon
Smaller dishes make food look big in comparison. Same goes for spoons, even when you’re just serving yourself: Your brain thinks that overflowing teaspoon is filled with food, even though logically you may know that a full tablespoon still has more on it. Another Cornell study found that people who used three-ounce serving spoons served themselves nearly 15 percent more food than those who scooped using smaller two-ounce spoons.

Additional reporting from Blake Miller

Image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

MORE FROM WH:
Slice Your Sandwich This Way to Eat Less
Which Serving Size is Larger?
100-Calorie Snacks that Satisfy Cravings

You Being Beautiful
Find easy ways to look and feel good fast in Dr. Oz’s book You Being Beautiful

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5 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Eating Less

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Apparently, the key to Kelly Osbourne’s recent weight loss isn’t what she eats—it’s how she eats it. An anonymous source told Now magazine that the reality star is staying thin by eating only from plates that contrast with the color of her food.

“She takes her plates everywhere. Unlike other fads, Kelly says this diet does help you lose weight and keep it off,” said the source.

While this B.Y.O. plate diet may seem too strange to be true, there is actually some pretty compelling science to explain how plate color can impact how much you eat (and in turn, weigh). A well-documented optical illusion theory called the Delboef illusion is the key, says Koert Van Ittersum, associate professor of marketing at Georgia Institute of Technology and author of numerous studies that explore how perception influences eating behavior. The Delboeuf illusion occurs when the perceived size of a circle–or in this case, serving size of food–is dependent on the size of the circle that surrounds it—in this case, a plate. As Osbourne has found, color contrast can amplify this illusion.

“Our brains play a little trick on us and try to combine both circles into one piece of information,” says Van Ittersum. The result? The same size serving can appear smaller or larger based on the size and color of the plate, affecting how much food we serve ourselves. Check it out for yourself:


Set the Table to Curb Your Consumption
Play these five mind games on your tummy to help shrink it.

Take a taller tumbler. When researchers asked 198 college students and 86 bartenders to pour a 1.5 oz shot of alcohol without measuring, they found that even experienced bartenders poured 20.5% more into short, wide glasses than tall, slender ones, according to a 2005 study published in the journal BMJ. When serving yourself a cocktail or other sugar-laden liquids such as juice or regular soda, use a taller glass to trick your brain into pouring less and you’ll painlessly slurp down fewer calories.

Downsize your dishes. In a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 85 nutrition experts who were given large bowls at an ice cream social unknowingly served themselves 31% more ice cream than those given smaller bowls. To avoid accidentally serving yourself a super-sized portion, use small plates and bowls. The best part: your stomach won’t even know the difference. The same study found that adults who served themselves cereal in smaller bowls thought they’d consumed 28% more cereal than they actually ate.

On a small plate, match your food. Contrary to Osbourne’s bright idea to eat foods that contrast with the color of her plate, Van Ittersum recommends matching the food to the plate–but only once you’ve downsized. When researchers asked adults to serve themselves white cereal on a small white plate, they served themselves smaller portions than the adults who poured dark-colored cereal on the same plates, according to a 2011 study published in Journal of Consumer Research.

Stuck with a large plate? Make your portion pop. When participants of the 2011 study were given white plates, they served themselves more white-sauce pasta than they did when given red plates. When eating off a large plate, make sure it contrasts with the color of your food to trick yourself into serving–and eating–less.

Coordinate your tableware and tablecloth. According to Van Ittersum, using like-colored linens can camouflage the edge of the plate, reducing the optical illusion so you can see your food serving for what it is, instead of comparing it to the size of the plate.

main photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
Weight Loss Tips that Don’t Suck
Delicious Dessert Recipes for Weight Loss
12 Flat-Belly Foods

Look Better Naked: Buy the book to learn how to look (and feel!) your very best.

 

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Will Going Vegan Turn You Into a Jerk?

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Recently, Bieber fever officially gave way to Bieber fury. But this time, the catalyst wasn’t his crazy fan base–it was his vegan diet. According to RadarOnline.com, Justin Bieber tried to go vegan to placate his mentor Usher, who promised the teen heartthrob that a diet refresh would boost his energy while on tour. (Good man! There are plenty of benefits to eating less meat.) But as an anonymous insider told Star, Beiber’s girlfriend Selena Gomez says that excluding meat, fish, eggs, and other animal products instead turned her boyfriend into a jerk.

Since then, Bieber clearly gave up his vegan diet—when he threw up on stage during a concert last week, he blamed it on drinking too much milk (decidedly not a vegan staple). But his recent forays into going sans meat (and eggs, cheese, dairy and animal products) still left us wondering: Does being a meat martyr really turn you into a meany?

“It’s personal,” says Keri Glassman, registered dietician and Women’s Health nutrition expert. “Some people feel better without meat in their diets, while some people feel worse.” One possible explanation: Newbie vegetarians or vegans may just be hungry. Because protein and fat from meat have more calories per gram than the carbohydrates in an all-veggie diet, a vegan diet may leave you feeling empty physically—and emotionally. “You’re going to feel unsatisfied and constantly hungry if you’re not eating enough calories because you’re not eating meat, or because you’re eating an unbalanced diet,” Glassman says. “And when you don’t have enough calories, you don’t have enough fuel, and you become irritable and cranky and lethargic.”

The good news is that it’s possible to change your diet in a way that won’t drive you (or your friends) completely bonkers.

How to Stay Sane on a New Diet

1. Eat breakfast every day. Begin the day with a breakfast that includes whole grains, protein, colorful fruits and vegetables, and you’ll reap the benefits of a better mood–not to mention clarity of thought, better performance at school or work, fewer food cravings, and an all-around easier time managing your weight, says Elizabeth Somer, registered dietician and author of Eat Your Way to Happiness.

2. Chow down at regular intervals. Eat regularly to steady your blood sugar level: it’ll keep you from becoming irrationally irritable when the waiter forgets to serve your dressing on the side (what part of ON THE SIDE was not clear?) or when a fellow driver cuts you off (that %!^@# !!!). (Read more about the best time to eat.)

3. Follow the 75 percent rule. Make sure that at least 75 percent of each meal and snack you eat consists of real, unprocessed foods. A 2009 study of nearly 3500 adults published in The British Journal of Psychiatry found a link between high consumption of processed foods (desserts, fried food, processed meats—the works) and the likelihood of depression. But here’s a reason to put a smile on your face: a diet rich in whole foods provides you with the most nutritional bang for your caloric buck—you get all the nutrients and none of the useless filler, whereas with processed foods you’re only getting a fraction of the nutrients per calorie.

4. Pee pale. Drink enough water so that your urine is pale yellow, and you’ll stave off dehydration. The first sign of dehydration is fatigue, a slippery slope toward unleashing your bitchy alter ego. (Worse yet? Dehydration makes you suck at everything.)

5. Swallow this: A moderate dose multivitamin, plus extra calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and—especially for non salmon-eaters—a DHA supplement of at least 220 mg will help fill in any gaps in your new diet and steady your mood, says Somer. Vitamin D, in particular, feeds receptors in your brain that need vitamin D to keep hunger and cravings in check, as well as to pump up levels of the mood-boosting chemical serotonin.

photo: Hemera/Thinkstock


More from WH:
6 Reasons to Eat Less Meat
Vegetarian Eating FAQs
The Real Scoop on the Raw Food Diet

 

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