Dr. George L. Dixon - "Talking Fitness"

THOSE OTHER MUSCLES

There are three kinds of muscles in your body. Smooth, striated and cardiac. Striated runs your skeleton, cardiac runs your heart and smooth muscle runs things like blood vessels and bowels.

Your bowel muscles work best regularly and with the proper contents. Exercise and fiber in your diet are essential to that working. There are two kinds of fiber, soluble in water, and not soluble in water. Soluble fiber helps to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) in your blood, thereby preventing narrowing of arteries. Insoluble fiber helps the bowel muscles to act regularly by absorbing water to add bulk to stool. You need 25-30 grams of fiber per day in your diet. You probably eat 10-15 grams.

High fiber intake protects against; colon cancer, perhaps breast cancer, constipation, diverticulosis, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Regular exercise does too. How to eat more fiber and know it?

Eat a variety of foods. Five daily servings of fruit and vegetables and three to six servings of whole-grain breads and cereals. Multiply your number of servings X 2.5. Multiply servings of beans X6. Multiply servings of refined grains (white bread, regular pasta) X1. Breakfast bran cereals can provide the greatest concentration of fiber. Multiply those by the package fiber content listed. ADD the four figures for your total daily intake of fiber grams.

Are you really very constipated usually??? Try this: one cup millers bran, one cup applesauce, 1/2 cup prune juice. Mix, keep refrigerated. One to three tablespoons per day will yield 5-7 grams per tablespoon of fiber. Drink lots of water too.

More help is available in "Exercise a la Carte", here, at your bookstore or call 800-624-4952.