Fiber, What For?

Most of us know fiber is very useful to prevent constipation. But, do you know that fiber is very good for our heart, too? Yes, fiber may lower bad LDL cholesterol, thereby lowering the risks of heart disease. Not only that, fiber can also reduce the risks of colon and breast cancer on women. People with diabetes also need enough fiber to help lower the blood sugar.

So, how much we need fiber daily? Women, depending on age, need 21-25 grams of fiber daily, while men need approximately 30-38 grams. Eating too much fiber won't do any harm, so you can eat all those fiber freely. It's good for our health!

Proteins, How Much Do We Really Need Daily?

Protein is very useful in growth and repair. But too much protein is not good for health. Excess protein will accelerate calcium loss in urine, so that women who have high risks of osteoporosis should not take too much protein. For men, beside the danger of osteoporosis, they also face bigger risks of having kidney stone if take too much protein.

So, how much ideally? As a rule of thumb, we need protein about 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. So, if we weight 165 lbs (75 kg), we'll need about 60 grams protein daily, or roughly about eight ounces of meat.

Calcium Needs

Do we really need calcium? Yes, of course! Calcium is very useful to lower the risks of osteoporosis. But how much do we need that daily? Is too much calcium can harm us?

Calcium is really very necessary for us. Research shows that a high diet of calcium can reduce the risks of bone fractures. Calcium also plays an important role in blood pressure regulation. But how much do we need calcium daily? The answer is different for women and for men.

Women below age of 50 need approximately 1,000 mg of calcium while those over 50 need about 1,200 mg. Men must consume lower than that, because to much calcium is not good for them. Too much calcium will increase the risks of prostate cancer to men. Men of all ages need not more than 800 mg of calcium daily.

Weight Loss. What to Eat - Part 2

You might wonder, how to know how much calories in certain foods so that we can have proper diet in our weight loss program. There are many books for that. You can search and buy them from amazon.com for instance. Or, if you prefer to get the information online, I recommend this link.

Okay, calorie is the most important thing to consider in our weight loss program. But once again, we should plan our diet/food well so that our body will still get all the vitamins and nutrients it needs.

Our body needs about 0.5-1 gram protein per pound of body weight daily, depending on our level of activity. 1 gram of protein roughly contains 4 calories. So if we eat 100 grams of proteins, our body will get about 400 calories.

We need also to consume fats, much preferably good fat (unsaturated fat). There is also bad fat (saturated fat) that we should avoid because it is very bad for our health. This bad fat can be found on all junk foods while good fat are from fish, olive oil, nuts, etc. About 30% of the calories we need should be supplied by these good fats. A gram of fat contains about 9 calories.

The rest of the calories can be obtained through carbs containing foods such as
beans, brown rice, oatmeal, fruit and vegetables, etc. One gram of carbs contains roughly 4 calories. But also remember that like fat, there is also good (complex carbs) and bad carbs (simple carbs). Bad carbs are often found in typical junk foods and candies. White bread is also full of bad carbs, so it is much better to eat whole grain bread instead. Cookies, chips, pretzels, and sugary drinks are also sources of these bad carbs.