Your digestive system can affect your weight, energy level, skin health, and immune system. A healthy digestive system is important for overall wellness. Your digestive tract absorbs nutrients and eliminates toxins from your body. Having enough Fiber in your diet is important for a healthy digestive tract.

Fiber assists in weight loss because it makes you feel full faster, aids digestion, prevents constipation and hemorrhoids, and slow digestion to make you feel full longer. The typical person only eats 10-15 grams of fiber per day. When I tracked my own intake, I discovered I was only consuming around 14 grams. The recommendation is to consume 20-35 grams of fiber per day.

There are two different types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble slows digestion and makes you feel full longer because it attracts water and turns to gel during digestion. It also lowers cholesterol and prevents heart disease. Oats, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, peas, and some fruits and veggies are examples of this type of fiber. Insoluble speeds the passage of food through the digestive tract and adds bulk to stool. Examples include wheat bran, veggies, and whole grains.

If you need to increase the amount of fiber in your diet to meet the recommended amount, increase slowly over a period of a few weeks because adding large amounts of fiber to your diet in a short period of time causes gas, bloating, abdominal cramps, and maybe diarrhea. You have to ease your body into it. Try not to go too far above the recommended value because too much fiber might interfere with the absorption of minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. Herbalife has a couple of products if you need to add fiber to your diet. They offer Florafiber supplement tablets and Fiber powder which can be added into your Herbalife Formula 1 Meal Replacement Shake. The new Herbalife Meal Replacement Bar has 5 grams of fiber, and the Herbalife Formula 1 shake mix offers 4 grams of fiber per serving.

Be sure to drink plenty of water to help the passage of fiber through the body, which introduces the topic of the next post...hydration!

 The widespread popularity of high-protein diets is due to their ability to help manage hunger.
When protein is absorbed, it sends a signal to the brain to decrease your hunger. It also raises resting metabolism by maintaining muscle mass. As we age, muscle mass decreases
without exercise, so staying fit is a key to burning fat by keeping your metabolism high. Protein leads
to much less rapid rise and fall of blood sugar and insulin, so you avoid the sugar slumps after
eating sweets without adequate protein. (I used to get instense blood sugar crashes before adding more protein to my diet). Certain foods provide a healthier resource for protein than others (red meat vs. chicken).
 
Protein is a component of every cell in the body. It is stored in muscles and organs, and
the body utilizes it to build and repair tissues, as well as for the production of enzymes and hormones.
Protein makes it possible for blood to carry oxygen throughout the body. Along with fat and
carbohydrates, protein is a "macronutrient,"; the body needs relatively large amounts of it. The
Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that our daily protein requirements
should be 10 percent to 35 percent of our total caloric intake, with men needing slightly more than women.
Lack of adequate protein can cause loss of muscle mass, decreased immunity, and weakening of the heart and respiratory system. Women need at least 46 grams of protein per day. Men need at least 56 grams of protein. If you are athletic, more protein is needed to help increase muscle performance.
 
You can obtain healthy sources of protein without high levels of saturated fat. Great examples of protein include yogurt, egg whites, cottage cheese, milk, lean meats, fish, tofu, beans (black, pinto, etc.). Include some protein in each meal and snacks. Breakfast cereals, shakes, and cereal bars now include up to 10 grams of protein!
 
During the next week, track how many grams of protein you eat per day to see how close you are to the recommended 46 grams. For me, I typically clock in about 52 grams of protein per day. I’m not really a breakfast person, but it’s an important meal not to skip, so I have the Herbalife Formula 1 meal replacement shake in the morning on my way to work. It has 170 calories and 9 grams of protein. I also add 5 additional grams of protein to the shake using Herbalife's Personalized Protein Powder. For a mid-morning snack, I have an Herbalife protein bar with only 150 calories and 10 g of protein. For lunch I usually have a chicken salad or wrap. My afternoon snack is Herbalife's Creamy Chicken Soup with only 80 calories and 16 g of protein. For dinner, I have another Herbalife Formula 1 Meal Replacement Shake. If I need an evening snack , I have yogurt.

I’ll check in with you next Monday to see if you calculated your daily protein intake and send out week 2’s topic. If you have a smartphone, there are great apps that help you keep track of calories, protein, etc. There are also many websites that will help you with this.
 
Now that you’ve increased your knowledge of protein, you can effectively enhance your diet and allow
good health to take shape.