this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
361 points (95.5% liked)

You Should Know

33371 readers
3 users here now

YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.

All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.



Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:

**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities:

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

Credits

Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Why YSK: fiber is important for optimal human health. It helps us avoid diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, obesity, and other diseases. This is particularly important in developed countries such as mine (USA) that are suffering greatly from these diseases.

The recommended daily fiber intake is 25g for women and 38g for men in the USA, and 95% of us don't meet this amount. This suggests an urgent need for us to increase our daily fiber intake, which can be achieved by swapping out ultra-processed foods and animal foods that are void of fiber with whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago (9 children)

Here’s my unsolicited recipe for overnight oats, you sweet, fiber-deficient lemmies:

1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, a glob of honey, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup of milk, then in the morning add 1/4 cup crushed walnuts and a ton of blueberries.

[–] aido 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

For anyone wonfering this seems to be ~8g of fiber (plus ~19440g for one ton of blueberries) based on this database, which seems to source basic data from the USDA.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

I just struggle with finishing my ton of blueberries before they spoil :(

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I hate when recipes mix units. How many cups are a ton?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I know, right? Let me help you out with that.

A ton is 907 kg approximately, and the weight of a cup of blueberries, while varying, is around 148 g or 0.148 kg.

That means the above recipe calls for around 6128 cups of blueberries. And at 3.6 g per cup of blueberries that's ~22000 g of fiber or 628 times your recommended daily intake for men, or 880 for women!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Here's my muffin recipe, but you can really omit the applesauce and use pretty much any fruit you like for flavor. Do keep the bananas though or the texture will be really wrong. It's good with a tbsp of chia seeds added, oats added, etc. I make my own yogurt and when I make cheese out of it I replace all the liquids (except oil) with the leftover whey and they come out gloriously soft and fluffy that way. Whole Wheat flour is really high calorie though so I'm open to suggestions for something to replace it with if anyone has any ideas.

Long story short I've messed with this recipe in so many ways and it has turned out great every time except the time I didn't have bananas and uses avocado instead. It's very forgiving so do it your way.

Muffin recipe

2 ripe mashed bananas

1 chopped apple

Flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax, 2.5 tbsp water, mix and let set while you prepare the other ingredients)

1 tbsp olive or avocado oil

1/4 to 1/2 C oat or soy milk or cow milk or whey

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 C whole wheat flour

1 C wheat bran

1tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp chia seeds

You can sub oat bran for wheat bran if you can find anyone selling it.

  1. Preheat oven to 350 (or don't if using a convection oven)
  2. Lightly spray muffin tin with avocado oil
  3. Add banana, oil, milk, vanilla, applesauce, flax egg into mixing bowl and stir well.
  4. Add dry ingredients plus chopped apple to another bowl and mix well. Don't add walnuts at this step.
  5. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add extra applesauce or milk if it's a little dry.
  6. Add to muffin pan in 12 equal portions. Add walnuts to the top and press them in a little or they'll fall off when the muffins are done.
  7. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
  8. Cool for a few minutes before removing from pan.
[–] twistypencil 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can't seem to get it together to do the night before, so I make morning oats

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] gac11 7 points 4 months ago

I've been doing: 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 1 cup flavored kefir 1 Tbsp chia 1 Tbsp ground flax As many blueberries as I can cram in with the rest in a 1 pint mason jar

It's... Fine. I've been considering adding half Greek yogurt and half kefir, but I'm already desperate for more sugar in the recipe.

Maybe a splash of honey will be my next step

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You should also know that there's soluble and insoluble fiber. Both are important, but what people are more likely to lack is insoluble fiber.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do you know if chia seeds have insoluble fiber

[–] Soulcreator 4 points 4 months ago

Yes, they are a great source of insoluble fiber.

[–] Skkorm 25 points 4 months ago (4 children)

This is purely anecdotal, but I started meal prepping with a pile of mixed vegetables and chicken, and my bowel movements have never been smoother. Like, the difference was legitimately addicting. Haha. An effortless shit everyday is such a massive game changer.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Thing is, I never have better shits than when I eat like absolute crap.

Hotdogs or a fry up, and it just flies out like a greased otter. Draw an ace every time.

When I go on a health kick and eat vegetables, it's legit like wiping a marker pen.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I've been working out more (and biking daily) and the post workout shit is always an amazing feeling.

[–] TBi 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Skkorm 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Literally just mixed peas, carrots and beans from a frozen package haha

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I once had a consultation with a surgeon about hemorrhoid surgery. Her recommendation was to use fiber supplements because it's almost impossible to get enough fiber from food alone.

(I ended up getting a bidet, and now my fiber-poor garbage diet doesn't cause that particular problem anymore )

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Psyllium husk pills are awesome

[–] wilberfan 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I had to start supplementing with psyllium fiber (powder) several months ago after a massive hemorrhoid attack last fall. (Surgeon gave me the identical advice.)

If I don't get at least 40 g a day of total fiber (about 20+ of which are the powder), stools get large 'n' hard. It's working, and my ass is thanking me.

What I'm having trouble squaring is I don't think we evolved eating that much fiber every day. Pre-agriculture it would have been (depending on which part of the planet) lot's of animal protein and whatever roots & berries you could find, right?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Micheal Greger in "how not to die" talks about this. He says that hunter gatherers would eat mostly plants and sometimes some meat. And all plant food was not process so with lot of fiber

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] James_Fortis 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I'm up to 70g of natural fiber a day! I'm plant-based though so it's easy for me when most of my foods are whole plant foods.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

You forgot the part where it allows you to have a normal bowel movement without straining. It’s the path to hemorrhoid reduction, possibly annihilation.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Why so much higher for men? On an average day I eat probably somewhere between 25 and 45 g depending on what I've meal preppes D for the week and what I've decided on for snacks. I am a vegetarian who eats mostly whole foods. I can't even fathom how the average American could come anywhere even close to that. It's a LOT of beans/whole grains/vegetables/chia seeds/etc.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In general, American men are larger - dimensionally - so more fibre is required for a larger person.

Ideally, an individual would work with their doctor or whoever to figure out how much would be appropriate.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Because larger people need to eat more, as their body requires more energy, and so they need more fiber, I'm assuming.

I was Googling just now and found that women have a longer colon than man. I wonder if that makes any difference.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] bamfic 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sexual dimorphism in humans

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Ok but I was curious another specific physiological reasons lol like maybe men require that much more or they don't see cardiovascular benefits or something like that.

[–] AngryCommieKender 6 points 4 months ago

Overall, men are significantly more massive than women, so our caloric intake is also proportionally higher. As a 6'3" 230lb man, if I were to try to stick to a 2000 calorie a day diet, I would lose weight. I need 2500 calories if I don't work out, and more like 3400 if I do.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Randelung 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] friend_of_satan 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

25 GB per day? I don't even HAVE fiber, I'm stuck with fucking Comcast, which might I add is down right now. Typical.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Vegetables measured in units of 120mL (because it's half of some cups) is really stupid.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Lol that's hilarious. I laugh so much at the crazy mixing of units we use here in the US. Similarly, it's quite common to see metric and customary units in the same sentence, as in "add 1 tablespoon to 100 mL of water".

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] indomara 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

We highly recommend Benefiber for anyone. It is tasteless, doesn't change the texture of your food or drink, and can be added to almost anything.

I think many people avoid adding fiber to their diets because it requires a change in diet or a supplement that is often gross.

Edit: Here's a link. https://www.benefiber.com/fiber-supplement-products/benefiber-powder/

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] MisterNeon 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Eat your veggies and fruit people.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] bcgm3 9 points 4 months ago

Finally, a pro-health justification for eating the whole container of oatmeal cookies.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Thanks for the reminder. I keep forgetting to look out for chia & flax seeds when grocery shopping...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This also relates to jaw and gum health too. Most folks eat too soft a diet as well (fibrous foods often require more chewing).

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Angry_Autist 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Psyllium husk is a really affordable way to add fiber, just BE AWARE OF DOSAGE, when they say TEASPOON. THEY MEAN IT!

LFMF.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

As some people here already know since I talk about it endlessly, I have a weird medical condition where I have not eating solid foods in almost a year now. You have no idea how much fiber you need just to have decent bowel functions when you start at a base of zero.

I drink four cans of V8 and take 2 Metamucil capsules a day to get me up to about 30g. Still less than the recommended amount, but it's all I can manage at the moment.

Before that, there were a couple of times when the constipation was so painful that I literally started yelling, "OH FUCK! OH FUCK! OH FUCK!"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] roofuskit 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Do not jump straight to this fiber intake if you are eating way under it. Gradually alter your diet to meet it. You will experience some discomfort if you don't.

You know that old saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away? Apples are a great source of fiber.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wheat germ. It's in most stores in the cereal aisle. I take it with my orange juice or sprinkled on oatmeal.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›