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Today we’re going to talk about fiber, that nutritional treasure of the plant kingdom that our diets so desperately lack.
We can blame the agri-food industry and ultra-processed products, the lack of time to cook, and our appetite for dairy and meat — industries whose lobbyists work hard to promote them!
Fiber has no caloric value, but it plays a major role in regulating intestinal transit and helps us be healthier.
The guest: Hélène Schernberg
This is what we’ll cheerfully explore with Hélène Schernberg, the great friend with whom I have just co-authored a book with Terre Vivante on the subject. I met Hélène in biology prep classes, when we were both struggling with anorexia.
Since then, we’ve healed ourselves by studying nutrition in depth. Hélène is now an agricultural engineer and economist.
She holds a PhD in economics and directs a university center dedicated to risk management.
At the same time, she develops her nutrition expertise through cookbooks and coaching. She ran a vegetarian recipe and nutrition blog for 10 years.
My questions
- Hélène, you ran a wonderful blog “Green Me Up” for 10 years after studying agronomy. Why did you become interested in nutrition? And what questions often came from your community?
- Let’s get to fiber. What are fibers?
- Can you describe the different types of fiber for us?
- Why a book about fiber? Are we really that deficient in it?
- What are the health benefits of fiber?
- Can you eat too much fiber? Are there any side effects?
- What impact does cooking have on the quality of fiber?
- Do you lose fiber when blending foods, like in a smoothie or juice? (a question I often had)
- Is there anything else to know about the links between the microbiome and fiber?
- Should you eat them at a particular time of day? In combination with other foods?
- You’ve written around ten healthy cookbooks. What would be your main recommendations for our listeners?
- Can you give us one or two high-fiber recipes that you particularly like?
Resources to learn more
- Our book on fiber: Fibers, My Allies for Health, Editions Terre Vivante
- A good overview of fiber, by Yuka
