The average American consumes about 15 grams a day of dietary fiber, which is approximately half of what the government and nutrition experts recommend. The reasons for the shortfall are many but most point to the obvious: as a society we have all but removed whole plants from our diet and thus dietary fiber in the process. The solution: eat more plants and by default the fiber in your diet will increase as well. Sounds simple enough.
While we could fill page after page on this blog about why Americans eat fewer and fewer plants, very little has been mentioned about the reduced fiber content of the plants that dominate the American food supply over those that punctuated the nutritional landscape upon which our current genome and dietary needs were selected.
Below is an interesting glimpse into what may be a significant contributor to our chronic low intake of dietary fiber. The graph presents the grams of fiber per 100 grams (approx 3 ounces: dry weight) of the dominant vegetables and fruits eaten by Americans, modern day Australian Aborigines, Hadza Foragers of Tanzania, and prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos region of west Texas and Northern Mexico. In other words, if you take the top 20 plants eaten by Americans (see list below), the fiber in 100 grams of edible material accounts for 10.7% by weight. As you see from the lists below, Americans consume a limited diversity of plants (note the are >300,000 edible plants in the world). By contrast, Australian Aborigines consume 100’s of different species of plant in a given year. Strikingly, the fiber content of the top consumed plants among aborigines is nearly twice as high (20.95%) as those consumed by Americans. This number is even higher among popular plants consumed among modern-day foragers in Tanzania, and almost equally as high from archaeological evidence from prehistoric populations in the Lower Pecos region of west Texas and northern Mexico.
Though we are all trying to consume more fiber, our most popular plants offer very little natural fiber making it more difficult to achieve optimal intake to maintain good health and well-being. If government programs and nutritional advice supported the consumption of plants with higher fiber content — such as legumes and beans, for example — we might reach more optimal intakes. We’re just sayin. LivNAKED friendos.
Top 10 Veggies Eaten by Americans: Potatoes, Tomatoes, Head lettuce, Romaine & leaf lettuce, Onions, Carrots, Cabbage, Sweet corn, Celery, Snap beans (Note these 10 account for 82% of all vegetables eaten in America. Note USDA data used for this article classifies tomato as a veggie even though it’s a fruit)
Top Fruits Eaten by Americans: Apples, Bananas, Grapes, Strawberries, Oranges, Watermelon, Pears, Peaches, Cantaloup, Pineapple (*Note these 10 fruits account for 60% of all fruits eaten in America) .
Is that whole grain wheat with nuts because that is very healthy for you.