The Fiber35 Diet: Nature's Weight Loss Secret

Introduction

The Fiber35 Diet—

Nature’s Weight Loss

Secret

Research shows that in the United States alone, consumers spend roughly $30 billion annually trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain, with an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion spent on weight loss programs.¹

Take a moment to think about every weight loss plan you have ever tried. Chances are that at one time or another, you were told to avoid something—fat, sugar, carbohydrates—and you listened.

You trimmed and skimped, curbed and cut back. Yet despite your dedication, you battled constant cravings. You endured fatigue, loss of energy, and poor health. And in the end, you managed to gain back every single pound you lost. Sound familiar? Now imagine a weight loss program designed to change all that.

Scientific research has proved that reducing the amount of calories we eat is the only way to lose weight and maintain our ideal body weight for life. But what we don’t often hear is that nature has created an amazing nutrient that can help us do both of these things. It is called fiber.

By definition, fiber is the indigestible part of fruits, seeds, vegetables, whole grains, and other edible plants. But one could just as easily call it a miracle nutrient. Why? Because fiber and fiber-rich foods actually help regulate blood sugar, control hunger, and increase the feeling of fullness—all of which are essential to losing weight and keeping it off.

When I began writing The Fiber35 Diet, my goal was simple: to help as many people as possible achieve their weight loss goals using the power of this remarkable little nutrient. In fact, the Fiber35 Diet is based on eating 35 grams of fiber per day.

Although this sounds simple, you may be surprised to discover that the majority of Americans consume less than half that amount. Too many processed foods and refined sugars in our diet have taken the place of fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, leaving us vulnerable to weight gain and poor health. Don’t beat yourself up, however, because you know you’ve been eating poorly and sugar has gotten a hold on you; the availability of processed foods and refined sugars is at record levels. It takes a conscious effort to seek out nutrient-rich super foods that will charge your metabolism and assist in your weight loss efforts. And I’m going to point you in the right direction by focusing on fiber, which will lead you down a path to superior health that goes beyond reaching your ideal weight.

By eating foods that collectively provide 35 grams of fiber per day, you will drop the weight you want to lose and maintain your ideal weight for the rest of your life. And by significantly boosting your daily fiber intake, you will reduce your chances of developing heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and a host of other obesity-related conditions. I will have proved this to you by the end of the book.

The Fiber35 Diet begins with an eye-opening introduction to fiber and its role in weight loss. Then, I’ll get right to the program and show you how you can start dropping pounds and gaining health with my Fiber35 Diet plan. You will learn a personalized weight loss equation—based on how many pounds you want to lose—that you will use to begin your journey toward eating healthfully and living well. I encourage you to consult with your physician prior to starting this program. It’s helpful to have your doctor on board in your weight loss efforts; he or she can also provide additional support and advice tailored to your specific needs. You may, for example, have special health issues to consider and will need extra guidance from your personal health practitioner. I also encourage you to discuss your plans for starting an exercise program especially if you’ve been inactive lately.

This diet has three distinct phases—Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three. Each phase is discussed in detail, and I devote an entire chapter to the seven metabolic boosters, which are the ways you can enhance your results and optimize your fat-burning systems. Recommendations about supplements and nutritious food choices are included, as well as a variety of healthful and fiber-rich recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In addition, I have included a comprehensive strength and cardio training program designed to help you maintain your ideal body weight. By the time you arrive at Chapters 11 through 13, you’ll be ready to go deeper into understanding just how this miracle nutrient is your helping hand in preventing disease and achieving vibrant health. You will be astonished by some of the research emerging to confirm the role of fiber in maintaining the body’s machinery. Who knew that a zero-calorie ingredient could be so extraordinary?

It’s true that in this country, and increasingly throughout the world, the number of people who are overweight or obese continues to grow at an alarming rate. And this is not just a health crisis; it’s also an economic crisis that affects everyone, as the total costs attributable to obesity-related disease approach $100 billion annually.² But together, we can help stop this debilitating pandemic.

By beginning the Fiber35 Diet and adopting a lifetime eating system based on the remarkable health benefits of fiber, you are making a conscious choice: a choice to lose weight, to live better, and to take back control of your body. And I applaud that choice.

Your partner in optimum health,

Brenda Watson

Chapter 1

The Miracle

Ingredient

Today, if a scientist working in a secret laboratory discovered a new ingredient called fiber, it would be hailed as a miracle nutrient, and one of the greatest medical discoveries of all time. The headlines might proclaim, Fiber Is the Secret to Ending the Obesity Epidemic! and Fiber Is the Secret Scientists Have Been Searching For to Reduce Heart Disease!

Every major network would put the discoverer of fiber, and his miracle ingredient, on the nightly news; and 60 Minutes would do an in-depth report. A Nobel Prize would be awarded to the scientist who brought forth this medical miracle.

Why? Because today, the most respected scientific research institutions in the world have proved that fiber is the secret ingredient that will help you lose weight, prevent disease, and achieve optimum health. Researchers have found evidence to prove that fiber increases satiety (the feeling of fullness), dampens hunger, and reduces caloric intake. And researchers agree that a high-fiber diet can help prevent most of the major diseases of today, from heart disease to diabetes to cancer.

I wrote The Fiber35 Diet to share this secret with you, the secret that will help you lose every pound you want to lose and maintain your ideal weight for life, while helping you to prevent the major diseases of our time. Read on.

The Eight Reasons Fiber Is a Miracle

Fiber is a miracle for eight reasons. It can help you:

1. Lose weight.

2. Maintain your ideal weight for life.

3. Reduce your risk of a heart attack.

4. Maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

5. Reduce your risk of diabetes and maintain normal blood sugar.

6. Reduce your risk of cancer.

7. Maintain bowel regularity.

8. Improve your immunity.

Impressive? Yes. Miraculous? I think so. How do you put this miracle ingredient to work? Well, let’s start with your weight.

If you are reading this, you are almost certainly overweight. And if you are overweight, you have almost certainly tried to lose weight in the past. And if you have tried to lose weight, you probably have lost weight, and then put it right back on.

If you are like me, you have suffered the effects of the yo-yo diet—a yo-yo that never seems to stop falling and rising. But the fact that you are reading this book says you have not given up the fight, and this in itself is worthy of praise. Congratulations—you are now only a short way away from starting a new high-fiber lifestyle that is going to change your life, forever.

Battling excess weight is one of the most frustrating and emotionally draining situations on earth. We are all challenged by it, and not until I found the gift of fiber was my own battle over. The knowledge you are now receiving about the power of fiber is a gift that I received twenty years ago, and a gift that I am passionate about sharing with you.

The Fiber35 Diet is the simplest diet you will ever follow, a diet I believe is the most powerful health-promoting diet on earth, and the last diet you will ever need to learn. You have found your weight loss solution; the power—this book—is quite literally in your hands.

Many of you may feel that it would take a miracle to lose weight and keep it off: and for you, I say fiber. Let me say it again. Fiber. Once more. Fiber. I can’t say it enough, and here’s why, plain and simple. Fiber is a powerful, natural substance that controls your hunger and eliminates calories that you have already eaten. Did you get that? Yes, fiber can actually erase calories you’ve already consumed and that could otherwise make you fat. The Fiber35 Diet returns you to the foods that Mother Nature intended you to eat in the first place. It’s a plentiful diet, a delicious diet, and a diet so rich in nutrients that it helps you improve your health with every single bite, while giving you more energy than you have felt in years. In fact, if I could have another name for this book, it would be The Energy Diet. Let’s face it, who among us doesn’t need more energy? I know you want to know the Fiber35 Diet secret, but first I want to tell you my story, and why it compelled me to write this book.

My Journey to the Fiber35 Diet

Twenty years ago, I was 25 pounds overweight, chronically tired, and suffering from health problems that would not go away. If the wind blew, I got a cold. If it rained, I couldn’t sleep. When the seasons changed, my allergies were so bad I couldn’t get out of bed. Forgive me for using a cliché, but I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And so what I now consider the most important moment of my life (other than the birth of my two wonderful children and the day I met my husband) came on me one fall day when I was walking to the post office in Charlotte, North Carolina. Along the way, I decided to enter a new health food store that had opened in town, and it literally changed my life.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I made a decision that eventually resulted in my regaining control over my weight, my health, and my energy. Walking into that health food store was the first step in my personal journey to natural health, which twenty years later has seen me become an expert in natural nutrition by earning a degree in alternative health; found five natural health clinics; write four best-selling books on natural health; teach thousands of people across the world about the power of natural health, through hundreds of lectures and radio shows; and produce two national PBS television specials on the power of fiber and other nutrients for vibrant health.

What a wonderful journey it has been, and today, with the publishing of The Fiber35 Diet, I feel the most important chapter in my personal journey to share optimum health has been written. Why? Because, even after taking that initial step to improve my health and change my lifestyle, I again struggled with my weight. I felt as though I had gone to sleep at age forty-three and awakened at age forty-eight with an extra 30 pounds! Although, by then, I was well aware of the health benefits of fiber, it wasn’t until this time in my life that I personally discovered the power of fiber in relation to weight loss. I began to incorporate more fiber, as outlined in this diet, and steadily the weight came off. Do I still struggle? All of you who have had to deal with weight problems know it takes a constant effort to maintain your ideal weight. I can honestly say the Fiber35 Diet has made that effort simple, effective, and rewarding.

The Secret to a Lifetime of Ideal Weight

Today we suffer from an obesity epidemic that causes ourselves, our families, our communities, and our nation personal, emotional, physical, and even economic pain. We have become addicted to foods that first make us fat, then make us sick, and then kill us before our time. Enough is enough! The truth is that we all have the power to change our personal health destiny and you are starting right now!

For many years, through my natural health centers, I have been sharing the Fiber35 Diet Formula and have witnessed many people succeed. And you will succeed, too. Intuitively, we all know that food can be our medicine or our poison; and in my clinics, I have taught the simple truth about choice. We can all choose to eat ourselves into a state of obesity, fatigue, and compromised health, or to experience ideal weight, bountiful energy, and longevity.

Of all the things I have learned in the past twenty years, nothing is more powerful than the fact that optimum health begins and ends with what we eat and—of equal importance—what we do not eat. And of everything I have learned, the Fiber35 Diet is the most important information I could ever share with you. I applaud you for making a choice that I made twenty years ago: to take back control of your weight and your health, by learning information that will change your life, just as it did mine. What’s the secret formula, exactly? Surely you’ve figured it out by now: 35 grams of fiber per day.

That’s it! Simple and powerful. Wait until you see the results. This is the most powerful nutritional information I could ever share with you. The information is a magical seed that can grow into a life of improved health and weight. If I were on my deathbed, and a higher power said to me, You can share one more message with the rest of the world. What will it be? You guessed it: Eat 35 grams of fiber a day!

That’s the secret. That’s the diet. And here’s how it works.

With the Fiber35 Diet, you are going to eat foods that collectively give you 35 grams of fiber per day. (To give you a basis for comparison, a raisin weighs about 1 gram.) In doing so, you can lose the weight you want to lose and then maintain your ideal weight for the rest of your life. And by eating a diet that provides you with 35 grams of fiber per day, you are going to reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a host of other obesity-related conditions.

Why will 35 grams of fiber a day be so powerful? There are two reasons:

1. Fiber helps you restrict calories.

2. Fiber packs a miraculous one-two punch against disease.

I’ll be reiterating and exploring the science behind these two reasons throughout this book. Even though your immediate goal may be to lose weight, I want you to keep in mind that this diet will ultimately bring you long-term health.

Fiber and Calorie Restriction

It’s a clinically proven fact that to lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn. But you already knew this; it is conventional wisdom, and it has already been chiseled into your brain. The hard part is not knowing this fact but applying it to your life!

Your body is like a car: it gets a certain number of miles to the gallon. If you put more fuel into your tank than you need to drive, you will have extra fuel left over, which is stored in your body as fat. So when you want to lose weight, you must reduce your calories below the amount you need to fuel your body; and when you do, your body will tap your reserve tank (the weight around your middle, or your thighs, or your posterior) to obtain the fuel it needs to run. How do you do this? How do you reduce your calories? You eat 35 grams of fiber per day.

Of the many health miracles that fiber provides, appetite reduction may be the one you most appreciate, especially when it comes to losing weight. And it’s not a drug or a synthetic medicine made in a laboratory for a pharmaceutical company. Fiber is Mother Nature’s natural appetite reducer, and it’s freely available. Fiber’s powerful effects are going to allow you to comfortably reduce your calories in Phase One and Phase Two of the diet, where you will shed the pounds you don’t want to carry around anymore.

The other essential element of this simple truth about weight loss is that you must burn more calories than you eat. If you restrict your calories but still don’t burn more than you consume, you can’t lose weight.

As much as we all would love to eat as much as we want and still lose weight, unfortunately our bodies are not designed that way. We require a certain number of calories to fuel our daily performance. Every activity we do burns calories. When we walk, talk, or even sit on a couch or sleep, we burn calories. When we think, we burn calories. In order for the heart to pump blood, we burn calories. All of our metabolic activities burn calories.

We gain weight when we consume more calories than we burn during any single day. We lose weight when we burn more calories than we consume. This fact is simple, and unavoidable. The larger the gap between the calories you eat and the calories you burn, the faster you will lose weight, and the more weight you will lose.

You already know this, too, and you also know that reducing calories during the period that you want to lose weight is just plain hard. Why is that? For one reason, when we reduce our calories below the number that we need each day to maintain our weight, a signal is sent from our brain that makes us hungry. The brain says, Hey, where’s all that food I need? At the very time you have taken the steps to get rid of excess weight, your brain sends a starvation signal to make you that much hungrier.

From my experience, the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t boils down to those who can control their appetite and those who cannot. If you could pop a pill that safely suppressed your appetite with no side effects (some drug companies have been trying to create such a drug for years), you’d want an endless supply of that pill, right? This is where the power of fiber begins. Fiber will help you to control your appetite in a natural way that is almost magical. It’s as close to a magic pill as you’re going to get, and it does a whole lot more than suppress your appetite.

Fiber as a Disease Fighter

Over the last forty years, food production actually increased faster than population.¹ And today, chronic and life-threatening diseases afflict millions of Americans. The statistics are breathtaking;² here’s a glimpse:

More than 18 million have diabetes, which is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Millions more are prediabetic and don’t even know it.

Almost 50 million suffer from chronic diseases like asthma or lupus.

About 70 million have arthritis, which is the leading cause of disability in the United States.

More than 80 million people in the United States suffer from digestive disorders like chronic heartburn, constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome, which happen to be the second leading cause of missed work (behind the common cold).

Here’s an eye-opener: we spend more than $120 billion a year on medical care for digestive problems, and we spend nearly the same amount on fast food. What most people don’t realize is that almost all of these digestive conditions result from inflammation of the digestive tract, an important topic I’ll be covering. What does fiber have to do with this?

The value of a high-fiber diet came to the attention of the American public in the 1970s, when Dennis Burkett, MD, and his associates published their landmark research on the world’s eating habits. Dr. Burkett noted that in indigenous cultures where dietary fiber intake is naturally high, people rarely suffered from obesity, heart disease, or colorectal tumors. Since then, studies clarifying the role of fiber in health and longevity have been pouring in and making sense out of all the anecdotal evidence. On the surface, fiber may not seem directly related to diseases like diabetes, asthma, and arthritis, and digestive disorders like heartburn, but there’s a profound relationship between the state of your health and the quality of foods you choose to eat. Those high in fiber offer an array of disease-fighting benefits that can impact the chain of events that takes place in your body, which can possibly lead to any one of several chronic diseases that afflict millions of Americans.

If you want to prevent the big diseases that cut life short, fiber is your ally in two ways. First, each gram of fiber, by itself, has incredible health benefits, from helping to reduce your risk of cancer to cutting your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Second, fiber comes with an unbelievable bonus: it travels with disease-fighting friends everywhere it goes. When you go to the gas station, you have choices: regular, plus, or premium. The better the grade of fuel, the better your engine will run and the longer your car will last. Fiber-rich foods are the premium fuel in the nutrition world; quite simply, fiber-rich foods are the best fuel to power your body. Why is that? Because Mother Nature knows how to put food together; and where you find fiber, you find the energy-rich, disease-preventing nutrients that your body was designed to eat. And where you do not find fiber in food (other than beef, poultry, and fish), you usually find foods that make you tired, fat, and unhealthy. It’s that simple, and that powerful.

We’ll be going into greater detail about the impact of fiber on overall health a bit later on. I’ll be taking you behind the scenes so you understand how, for example, fiber is associated with lower cholesterol, a better blood sugar balance, and enhanced immunity. For now I just want you to know that, as I’ve already noted, fiber packs a potent one-two punch.

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Chapter 1 Summary

The Miracle Ingredient

Fiber’s One-Two Punch

Fiber is the natural appetite suppressant that allows you to reduce calories; and reducing calories is the only way to lose weight.

Fiber and its nutrient friends with whom it travels fight disease.

Fiber is a miracle in at least eight ways:

Fiber will help you lose weight.

Fiber will help you maintain your ideal weight for life.

Fiber reduces your risk of heart attack.

Fiber helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Fiber reduces your risk of developing diabetes and helps maintain normal blood sugar.

Fiber reduces your risk of cancer.

Fiber promotes bowel regularity.

Fiber helps improve your immunity.

The Fiber35 Diet Formula consists of eating 35 grams of fiber every day. This will help you lose weight and improve your health because:

Fiber controls hunger by acting as a natural appetite suppressant.

Fiber eliminates calories we have already eaten.

Fiber-rich foods are energy-rich, antioxidant-rich, disease-preventing foods.

Chapter 2

Fiber—The Amazing

Weight Loss Solution

When I first met Pete at one of my clinics, he weighed 210 pounds, stood six feet tall, and wanted to lose 30 pounds.