You gain weight when you consume calories, but calories aren't necessarily bad. In fact, they are a measurement of needed energy. Eating 1,100 to 1,300 calories daily is required "to keep the body alive," according to the college textbook "Essentials for Health and Wellness." One pound equals 3,500 calories. Calories can come from fat, protein or carbohydrates. Fiber is a kind of carbohydrate and is regarded as healthy by proponents of low-fat and low-carb diets.
Beans
The National Cancer Institute recommends eating 20 to 35 grams of fiber daily, but Americans eat 11 to 13, according to the college textbook "An Invitation to Health." People in nations with fiber-rich, low-fat diets have very low rates of colon cancer, diabetes, diverticulitis, heart disease, obesity and rectal cancer, according to "The New Pritikin Program." Eating beans reduces your risk of these diseases because they're high in fiber.
Four of the eight foods with the most grams of fiber per serving are beans--navy beans with 19.1 g, baked beans and franks with 17.9 g, pinto beans with 15.4 and black beans with 15, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database. They're all calorie-rich. Navy, baked, pinto and black beans have 255, 368, 245 and 227 calories per serving, the Nutrient Database reports. In contrast, green beans have 31 to 44 calories per serving. Kidney and lima beans also are loaded with calories and fiber.
Fruits
There are two kinds of fiber--insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber "substantially" decreases how long food goes through your intestines and, thus, increases the size of your stool, cuts your risk of hemorrhoids and cures constipation in many people, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease."
Numerous fruits are loaded with insoluble fiber, including figs, apples, strawberries and dates. Altogether, dates are the fruit with the most fiber per serving--14.2 g. Dates also have 502 calories per serving. Several of the 10 fruits with the most fiber are also high in calories, including raspberries with 11 g of fiber and 258 calories, plums with 7.7 and 265, blueberries with 5.1 and 186, strawberries with 4.8 and 245, and peaches with 4.5 and 235. In contrast, blackberries, papayas and raisins are rich in fiber, but have fewer than 70 calories per serving.
Grains
Grains are often loaded with soluble fiber that lowers blood cholesterol, according to well-known diet experts Dr. Dean Ornish and Robert Pritikin. Barley, oat bran, rice bran and rolled oats are among the grains with the most soluble fiber.
Barley and bulgur, both of which are cereal crops, are the foods with the first- and second-most fiber, according to the USDA National Nutrient Database. Barley has 31.2 g of fiber and 704 calories per serving; bulgur has 25.6 and 151. Wheat flour and oat bran are also high in fiber, ninth and 10th with 14.5 and 14.4 g per serving, and high in calories with 407 and 231 per serving, respectively. These grains make many cereals high in calories and fiber, including Kellogg's Raisin Bran, Wheatena, Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats and General Mills' Raisin Nut Bran.
References
- United States Department of Agriculture: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- "The New Pritikin Program"; Robert Pritikin; 1990
- "Essentials for Health and Wellness"; Gordon Edlin, Eric Golanty, Kelli McCormack Brown; 2000
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
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