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Cathy
This is the best tasting fiber I have ever had. I can actually enjoy the drink with water, but with a little milk it is out of this world. Thanks for the great product!
Sylvia S O.D.
Finally, a company that tells the truth. So many people overlook cholesterol levels in protein risking their health. The topic of oxidized cholesterol is an important one that needs someone like yourself to lead the charge.
Julie
Thanks for the great fiber! All natural, Beta Glucan, 5 fiber sources and the TASTE is awesome.
Jeff L
As a bodybuilder I have tried all the proteins on the market. Thank you for making the best tasting isolate on the market. The sooner everyone learns all protein is not the same the quicker they will start making gains in the gym. Much appreciated.
Roger
I wanted to say thanks for such a great fiber product. I use this in conjunction with my pro-biotic as a "pre-biotic" and have had tremendous results. The flavor and smooth texture makes this fiber the most unique and flavorfull fiber drink I have ever had.
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| Fiber Balance Question & Answer |
Fiber Balance Q & A Part 1
Q. Your new product, Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance has just hit the shelves, and the people we've spoken to have been shocked to discover that you've actually created a fiber supplement which mixes smooth and creamy and tastes great - it's truly a first in the industry. But, before we begin to discuss Fiber Balance itself, could you tell us, in general terms, why dietary fiber is so important to our health?
Dietary fiber has rightfully been called the "forgotten nutrient" of human nutrition. Studies have shown that only the tiniest fraction of Americans consume sufficient fiber each day, and making this dietary deficiency all the more heartbreaking is the fact that fiber has been shown again and again to play an enormous role in protecting us from many of the life-threatening disorders which are epidemic in this country.
And despite its important role in human nutrition, dietary fiber still remains a mystery to the majority of Americans. Millions of people are suffering needlessly because they don't know exactly what dietary fiber is, where to find it, or all of the many ways in which fiber can impact their health.
For example:
With the millions of people in this country trying desperately to lose weight, many people would probably be interested to know that fiber intake has been shown to be a better predictor of bodyweight than any other component of our diet, like proteins, fats, or carbohydrates. In other words, people who eat the most fiber weigh less - plain and simple.
And with one out of every three people in the industrialized world dying from factors related to cardiovascular disease, I wonder if fiber would get the respect it deserves if people knew that just a 10 gram increase in fiber consumption per day could lower their risk of having a heart attack by 14%, and lower their risk of having a fatal heart attack by 27%.
And with blood-sugar disorders exploding in this country, I'm sure that people would try a little harder to bump up their fiber intake if they knew that a recent study from The Archives of Internal Medicine showed that people taking in an additional 14 grams of fiber per day had a 27% lower risk of developing diabetes.
Or with cancer recently edging-out heart disease as this nations number one killer, I wonder if people would be interested to know of a recent study conducted at the University of Leeds in the UK which showed that pre-menopausal women who consumed 30 grams of fiber per day had half the risk of breast cancer compared to women who ate less than 20 grams per day.
Overweight/obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer - these are the scourges of our modern world, and a lack of dietary fiber is implicated in each and every one of them.
At Integrated Supplements, we think that it's time to bring the role of dietary fiber into focus, and when we're done, we hope that fiber will never again be called the "forgotten nutrient" of nutrition.
Q. What is Fiber exactly?
Dietary fiber can be defined simply as the indigestible component of plant-based foods. For the most part, we can find the highest amounts of fiber in unprocessed foods like vegetables, the skins and pulp of fruits, and the outermost bran portion of grains - not surprisingly, these are the foods we don't eat nearly enough of in our modern diet.
And while the human digestive system contains enzymes which can break down other components of food, like carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, we possess no such enzymes for dietary fiber. Although it may seem strange that something that we can't even digest could impart any health benefits, the fact is, as mentioned previously, that certain types of dietary fiber have repeatedly been shown to exert remarkable benefits in relation to some of the most common nutrition-related disorders we face today.
Certain types of fiber have been shown to reduce our risk of heart disease, diabetes, and possibly cancer. Fiber can support our digestive system, and can also reduce our appetite, helping us to maintain a healthy body weight.
Scientific research into the health-promoting effects of dietary fiber has exploded over the past few decades and it's now widely believed that there is probably no nutritional substance known to science which has as many far-reaching health benefits as dietary fiber. But, most people would probably be surprised to learn, as we were, that the term "dietary fiber" wasn't even coined until 1953, and the health benefits of dietary fiber weren't even suspected until the late 1960s. Up until this time most scientists simply assumed (as most laypeople still do) that fiber was simply good for keeping us "regular."
But it's now known that fiber does infinitely more than just this, and if we are to truly combat the epidemics of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity currently gripping this country, it's important that we clear up the misconceptions which have lingered around fiber for decades. It's important that we teach people what role fiber plays in these conditions, and that we teach people how to make healthy food and supplement choices so that they can take in the recommended 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day.
Q. If we should all aim to take in 25 to 35 grams of fiber each day. Could you give us an idea of the types and amounts of foods we would have to eat each day to reach this goal?
A. Even taking in the bare minimum of 25 grams of fiber per day through food can be difficult. Many people simply assume that if they eat a balanced diet that they'll be getting all of the fiber they need to support their health, but this simply doesn't seem to be the case.
To give some examples:
You would have to eat 6 servings of oatmeal or six cups of brown rice to take in 25 grams of fiber.
And even with the most fiber-dense whole grain bread, you would still have to eat 12 slices of it to reach 25 grams of fiber.
And while they contain fewer calories than grains, it takes even more vegetables to reach our fiber goals. It would take 25 cups of raw broccoli, 8 cups of raw carrots, or two whole heads of romaine lettuce to give you 25 grams of fiber.
Now obviously, your entire daily fiber intake would never come from just one food, but this list gives you an idea of how large a volume of food is needed to even reach the bare minimum fiber recommendation of 25 grams per day. Many health authorities even recommend upwards of 35 grams of fiber per day, an intake which for many people borders on the impossible.
Q. How many of us actually meet our fiber requirements each day through the foods we eat?
A. According to surveys published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a full 90% of us don't meet our fiber requirements daily. Other studies have estimated that this number is actually closer to 95%. And the sad fact is that as a nation, most of us aren't even coming close. The average American consumes only 8-12 grams of fiber per day in the typical diet, a mere one-third to one-half of the 25 gram minimum needed to support health.
But it wasn't always this way. Studies have also shown that in the year 1850, before the refining of grain was so common, that the average American ate 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber daily, nearly two to three times as much as the average American eats today.
Q. Obviously, our increasingly processed food supply has had a dramatic impact on our health as a nation. How have changes in our food supply made it more difficult for the average person to take in healthy amounts of fiber each day, and what needs to be done to reverse this trend?
A. By the time the importance of dietary fiber began to come to light in the scientific journals, it was too late to stop the runaway freight train which was (and still is) the food processing industry in this country. Removing fiber (and other nutrients) from foods through processing had become the norm, and by the late 1960s, our standard American diet; which now included unprecedented amounts of fiber-lacking refined grains, white flours, and refined sugars; had been unquestioningly accepted by the majority of Americans, and in recent decades, this problem has only gotten worse.
We have a strange situation occurring in this country today. As a nation, we've produced an abundance of food never before experienced at any time in human history, and yet our health is literally being destroyed by this very food. As scientists are just now starting to uncover many of the unsuspected ways in which processed food can damage our bodies, it's becoming increasingly clear that ironically, the standard American diet represents one of the greatest threats to our national health.
The pronouncements are echoed by every major medical and public health organization: Heart disease is an epidemic, cancer is an epidemic, diabetes is an epidemic, overweight and obesity are epidemics (especially among children) - and we are repeatedly warned that all of these disorders are directly related to our modern food supply.
For decades, every major public health organization has tried to make it clear that our dietary choices are literally a matter of life and death. They've practically begged the American public to eat a healthier diet, and all of these groups, including the American Dietetic Association, The American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association, and even the US Food and Drug Administration have urged Americans to eat more fiber-rich foods in particular. But if the statistics on our fiber consumption are any indication, it appears that the recommendations of these groups have all been largely useless. Americans just aren't heeding the advice, probably because the voices of these organizations can scarcely be heard over the billions of dollars worth of incessant food industry advertising which we are subjected to each year.
As a nutritional supplement company, we've made the commitment to teaching our customers exactly how and why to reintroduce to their diet the very nutritional components that have been removed in the refining, and altering of our modern foods. And as we conducted our research one fact kept staring us right in the face: no nutritional component is as important to our health, or as conspicuously lacking from our modern food supply as dietary fiber. So we knew that we simply had to find a way to help our customers get the fiber they lacked. In doing this, we knew that we would have to succeed where many major health organizations had failed.
We knew that our message was simple enough:
If you put fiber back into your diet, you'll be taking the biggest single step towards reversing the harmful effects of our processed food supply.
But we also knew that even a powerful, life-and-death message like this one wasn't enough. We knew that we also needed to make it simple for a large number of people to easily supplement their diet with the fiber they so desperately needed.
As it turns out, this had never really been done before.
If you're unfortunate enough to have any experience with some of the fiber supplements on the market, you probably already know why they haven't helped to bridge this nations' fiber gap at all. Most fiber supplements on the market are gritty, and thick, and taste terrible. They "gel-up" quickly when mixed with water, and can then be almost impossible to drink. There's simply no way that large amounts of people can be expected to endure the sheer agony involved in taking glass after glass of foul-tasting sludge just to add a miniscule amount of extra fiber to their diet.
At Integrated Supplements we knew that it wasn't enough to just educate our customers on the benefits of fiber - we knew that we also had to give them a tool they could use day-in and day-out to supplement their fiber intake easily and even enjoyably. We knew that we had to create a smooth-mixing, great-tasting and balanced fiber supplement which our customers would actually enjoy taking everyday.
We did just that with our new product, Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance, and we feel that Fiber Balance is a major step forward in helping people finally take in the fiber which is so incredibly important to their health.
Q. You mentioned that fiber can be good for weight loss. Where it seems that nearly everyone is trying to lose at least a few pounds, could you tell us how fiber helps us with this and how we could use Fiber Balance to help control our appetite and maintain a healthy bodyweight?
A. Most people seem to realize rather intuitively that fiber helps to fill them up, but what many people don't realize is how many extra calories they eat when their foods are lacking in fiber. From laboratory studies, it's well known that animals given a diet lacking in fiber invariably eat more food and calories than those given fiber-rich foods. In fact, researchers give fiber-lacking foods to animals to fatten them up when they need to do studies on obese animals, for example.
And, as it turns out, this phenomenon isn't just limited to the laboratory setting. As our fiber intake in this country has continued to decline over the past several decades, our average caloric consumption per day has continued to increase steadily. Would you believe that according to data from the National Institute of Health that the average American ate 300 more calories per day in the year 2000 versus the year 1985?
This amounts to the intake of a whopping 100,000+ extra calories per year, which is almost guaranteed to result in unwanted weight gain.
But fiber can help. Fiber can slow down the absorption of the foods we eat, and can ensure a slow and steady release of glucose into the bloodstream. Fiber works to keep our blood sugar levels within a normal range, so our brains will continually get the message that we are being well fed. This is how fiber helps us to naturally eat less, even without consciously restricting food intake.
Our bodies can function very efficiently on just a small amount of blood glucose, but when we hit our bloodstream with a tidal wave of glucose from fiber-poor refined carbohydrates and sugars, we set the stage for major metabolic disruption. When our blood sugar is spiked by these foods our bodies overcompensate by producing excess insulin, and this causes our blood sugar to plummet back down to below-normal levels. The result? Increased food cravings to get our blood sugar up again. You may have heard this phenomenon referred to as the "blood sugar rollercoaster," and if you're on it, you know that it's a surefire way to set yourself up for insatiable carbohydrate cravings and an excessive consumption of calories.
Strong food cravings are almost always triggered by the brain in response to rapid drops in blood sugar, as the brain's fuel supply is largely dependent on glucose (from carbohydrates). From an evolutionary standpoint, if the brain thinks that it's "starving" it will try to correct this problem "by any means necessary." When our blood glucose levels are low, the brain sends out serious distress signals in the form of strong carbohydrate and sugar cravings, in essence saying, "feed me!" All of the willpower in the world won't help us at this point. Sooner or later, one way or another, we will consume the calories that our brain needs.
But again, fiber helps to prevent this phenomenon by keeping our blood sugar levels within a normal range. This allows us to avoid food cravings and to effortlessly consume fewer calories without hunger, irritability, or fatigue.
In the wake of the low carbohydrate diet craze of recent years, many people are now achieving weight loss success not by drastically restricting their carbohydrate intake, but by seeing to it that they eat a "low glycemic" diet, that is, a diet that keeps their blood sugar constantly within the normal range - never becoming too high, or too low. A formula for creating a low glycemic diet often includes fiber-rich unprocessed foods and fiber supplements like Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance.
Fiber Balance can be easily incorporated into almost any food, or even mixed with water. Taken immediately before or with meals, Fiber Balance can help to turn a high glycemic meal into a low glycemic meal, and can turn a low glycemic meal into an even lower one, and this can have a remarkable effect on controlling food cravings.
In fact, even we were surprised by how significantly Fiber Balance helped to suppress our appetites. At the Integrated Supplements offices, when we began taking Fiber Balance, we all noticed a significant reduction in our appetites, and we noticed that we could go longer periods of time between meals without suffering the fatigue or irritability symptoms of low blood sugar. It almost seems too simple, but if you're not hungry, you'll simply eat fewer calories - even without consciously "dieting." From the feedback we've gotten so far, I think that more and more people will be making Fiber Balance a major part of their weight management strategy in the future.
Q. So, if fiber helps to regulate blood sugar like you say, is it also good for diabetics?
A. Absolutely. For the same reasons we just mentioned regarding weight loss, people with diabetes should definitely make sure to consume sufficient dietary fiber. In fact, we'll even go a step further and say that everybody, not just diabetics should be concerned with supporting healthy blood sugar levels with dietary fiber.
Let's face it - we're surrounded by a food supply which, if we're not careful, is almost guaranteed to cause unhealthy blood sugar levels over time. Diabetes doesn't happen overnight, and you don't catch it like you do a cold. Diabetes is often the end result of a lifetime of poor dietary choices, and by the time a diagnosis of diabetes is actually made, it's certain that a major amount of bodily damage has already taken place.
It's been shown that chronically elevated blood sugar levels can increase our risk of heart disease well before the diagnosis of diabetes has been made, so if you're somebody who already has healthy blood sugar metabolism - keep it that way. Eat a healthy balanced diet of unprocessed foods and make sure to consume sufficient amounts of fiber on a daily basis. The earlier in life you heed this advice, the better off you'll be.
Q. Heart disease, diabetes, and obesity often go hand-in-hand in the cluster of symptoms now known as "Metabolic Symdrome." We know that fiber can help to keep blood sugar within a healthy range which is certainly a piece of the puzzle, but how else can fiber help to reduce our risk of heart disease?
A. Currently, one out of every three deaths in this country is attributable directly to cardiovascular disease, and making these statistics particularly frustrating is the fact that by all accounts, implementing simple dietary and lifestyle changes would go a long way towards obliterating this worldwide epidemic.
In a 2004 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed the results of 10 major large-scale controlled studies examining the effects of dietary fiber on coronary heart disease. In looking at the dietary habits of hundreds of thousands of individuals over a period of six to ten years, this study has helped to make the role of dietary fiber in heart disease clear beyond any doubt.
What these researchers found was that for every 10-gram increase in dietary fiber the subjects ate, their risk of having a heart attack dropped by 14%, and their risk of having a fatal heart attack dropped by 27%.
The take-home message from this study and countless others like it is that dietary fiber can indeed be a major part of the heart disease puzzle.
In addition to helping keep blood sugar within a healthy range as we mentioned, certain types of dietary fiber may also be able to reduce our risk of heart disease by lowering our cholesterol levels. Beta-glucan, for example is a type of fiber known for its cholesterol-lowering effects and has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Q. Could you tell us more about beta-glucan?
A. Beta-glucan is a unique type of fiber found in the cell walls of foods such as oats, barley, yeast, and mushrooms. The heart-healthy effects of beta-glucan are backed by such overwhelmingly conclusive research, that beta-glucan is one of the few food components for which the FDA allows food and supplement producers to make specific claims regarding this fiber's role in preventing heart disease.
According to the FDA, products containing just 750 milligrams of beta-glucan per serving, when taken in conjunction with a diet low in saturated fats and cholesterol, can lower our cholesterol levels and reduce our risk of heart disease. The total amount of beta-glucan needed per day to exhibit these effects is a mere 3 grams, so obviously beta-glucan displays remarkably powerful effects even at very low doses.
The research makes it clear that while we should still aim to increase our overall fiber consumption to the recommended 25 to 35 grams per day, part of this total amount should ideally consist of the soluble fiber beta-glucan for its numerous health benefits.
That's why we went out of our way to formulate Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance with a unique type of oat bran fiber specifically produced to supply high levels of beta-glucan without the starchy carbohydrates or calories found in foods like oatmeal, or conventional oat bran. Each serving of Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance contains 10 grams of total dietary fiber including 750 mg of the all-important beta-glucan, while at the same time containing only 5 grams of usable carbohydrates.
Q. So, Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance is unique among fiber supplements because it mixes smooth and creamy, is non-thickening, non-gelling, tastes great, and it contains heart-healthy beta-glucan. What else should we know about Fiber Balance?
A. Fiber Balance truly is in a league of its own as far as fiber supplements go. There are some fiber supplements on the market that mix clear and are easy to take, but none of them are balanced formulas. Fiber Balance (as the name implies) is a balance blend of five different types of fiber, all with their own benefits within our bodies.
It doesn't contain psyllium fiber which gels and mixes up thick and gritty, and it doesn't contain seeds or laxative herbs which can irritate the gastrointestinal tract.
Here's a look at the different types of fiber which make up Fiber Balance:
Nutrim Oat Bran - Nutrim is a type of oat bran specially prepared to contain high levels of beta-glucan fiber. Beta-glucan can reduce cholesterol and triglycerides, support healthy blood sugar levels, and even support healthy immune function.
Fibersol 2 - Fibersol 2 is a clear-mixing fiber that also helps to support healthy blood sugar levels, and digestive health.
Inulin - Inulin is a type of soluble fiber which helps the friendly bacteria in our intestines thrive. Many people currently take friendly bacteria, or probiotic supplements like acidophilus to support gastrointestinal health, and inulin is a great fuel to support the population of these healthy organisms in our intestines.
Apple Fiber - Apple fiber contains a blend of both soluble and insoluble fiber including apple pectin which helps to remove cholesterol from the body, and delays the absorption of glucose.
So, with Fiber Balance, we feel that we've been able to produce a product with absolutely no compromises. It tastes great, is easy to take, supports heart-health, blood sugar control, gastrointestinal health, and weight management and contains a balanced blend of fibers. There's really no other fiber supplement quite like it.
We'll have much more to tell you about Fiber Balance in the coming weeks, including some tasty Fiber Balance recipes which you can use to bump up your fiber intake each day - stay tuned!
According to the Food and Drug Administration, soluble fiber from oat bran-containing products like Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may lower blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. A serving of Integrated Supplements Fiber Balance supplies 750 milligrams of the 3 grams of soluble fiber from oat bran necessary per day to have this effect.
All other statements made in this Q & A have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. No Integrated Supplements product is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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