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LEVEL 2 FOOD: THE POWER OF PROTEIN
LESSON 3

Diving Deeper with Fiber

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By now, it’s obvious that protein is powerful in helping drive and maintain your results. But don’t forget fiber.By this point in the program you’ve likely spent so much time with the carb:fiber ratio, fiber probably feels like a no-brainer. But it’s worth revisiting here from a different angle: as a tool to help control cravings, supercharge results, and more.

Fiber: A primer

Fiber feeds the billions of bacteria that keep your intestinal and immune systems in good health (in fact, studies show that low-fiber diets can lead to inflammation). Fiber also cuts cravings by keeping you feeling full for longer. That’s because just like protein, fiber (in both of its forms, soluble and insoluble) passes through our digestive systems intact, carbs digest more slowly. 

Remember: The faster your body digests a carbohydrate, the faster your blood sugar will spike. But fiber slows digestion, so the more fiber a food has relative to its carbohydrate content, the more stable your blood sugar will stay and the less likely your body will be to store energy as fat. (Read even more about fiber here.)

Revisit the carb:fiber ratio

Given fiber’s role in cravings and weight loss, it’s worth thinking about it beyond just the 10:1 threshold. Specifically, you can use it as a lever to pull when you’re experiencing more cravings, or when you feel like you’ve reached a weight loss plateau.

Luckily, there’s a trick for this that’s just as simple as the original ratio. A 5:1 carb:fiber ratio generally corresponds with a food that’s extremely high in fiber. Foods that pass this test tend to be whole, and low on ingredients, and adding just one food like this to every meal or snack is an incredibly powerful way to manage hunger and blood sugar if you feel like either one is spinning up.

Here are some examples of foods that have a 5:1 ratio or better:

One thing to note: There are plenty of foods that fall between 5:1 and 10:1. Some varieties of apples fall around 7:1, a sweet potato is around 6:1. The idea is to be mindful of the ratio, and to incorporate foods with an optimal ratio as often as possible.

MAKE IT YOUR GOAL

Your goal is still to work on amping up your protein levels and lowering your carb:fiber ratios. But as you get better and better at doing this, start playing with the 5:1 carb:fiber ratio as a bonus way to feel great. Cementing these new tools now will give you a leg up for even more success in your food pillar as you progress through the program.