This One Ingredient Can Stop Refined-Carb Cravings
Posted by Plantraw™ Plantraw.com™ on
In the 1967 classic "The Graduate" Walter Brooke advises the young Dustin Hoffman that he has one word of advice for him: "Plastics."
In this post we have one word of advice for our readers: Fiber, meaning, dietary fiber, as in Plantraw™ snacks. This one ingredient can make a huge difference in the pursuit of better health.
Fiber, (aka, "dietary fiber," "roughage," or "bulk") is the part of plants that is not digestible. According to the Mayo Clinic, fiber can help in preventing constipation, achieving a healthy weight, and lowering the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Fiber contributes to the feeling of fullness. Thus, fruits, veggies, and Plantraw™ snacks, as well as whole grains, nuts, and legumes, satiate a lot more than processed foods that lack fiber.
Put differently, the same amount of calories that make up a small, refined-carbs snack can equate to a decent size bowl of salad or a large portion of fruits.
Fiber in fruits, veggies, and Plantraw™ snacks comes with vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients that both nourish the body and work together for better, slower nutritional absorption. Therefore, obtaining fiber from real foods is superior to ingesting it in the processed form of powder or a pill.
Modern life can make it difficult to maintain a diet of real foods; worse, it facilitates access to highly-processed foods that deliver nothing in the way of nutrition and mostly refined carbs.
These calorie-rich, nutrition-poor foods "share characteristics with drugs of abuse (e.g. high dose, rapid rate of absorption)." [1] In other words, not only are refined-carbs not filling, but they are also addictive--a double whammy with regrettable consequences.
In contrast, fiber-rich foods satiate and fill and since they naturally come with a package of nutrients, they also nourish.
Our advise then is to stick to fiber-rich foods. In case of a sweet tooth, have with you at the ready some fruits, veggies or a Plantraw snack. With pouches containing up to 21% of the daily value of fiber, our chocolate truffles are both nutritiously and deliciously filling.
In the coming posts we'll detail a variety of helpful techniques to make healthy habits easy to accomplish. Sign up for our newsletter for more.
Footnotes
[1] Schulte EM, Avena NM, Gearhardt AN. Which foods may be addictive? The roles of processing, fat content, and glycemic load. PLoS One. 2015 Feb 18;10(2):e0117959. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117959. PMID: 25692302; PMCID: PMC4334652.