Dispelling the Myth: You Can Never Have Too Much of a Good Thing

Fiber is good for you. Everyone says so. Some of fiber's claims to fame are its ability to flush cholesterol out of your bloodstream and toxins from your intestinal tract. Every single manufacturer in the free world is wanting to capitalize on what Grandma always preached about roughage by adding it to each and every product on grocery store shelves.

On Monday, I bought one of each.

I am not a big fan of dieting. I like flavor. I like butter. I like to be full. However, I have realized, since the passing of the holidays, that Something Has Got to Give. And it needs to not be the seams in my jeans. Early in the week, while most people were not even out of bed, I filled my grocery cart with $200 worth of highly nutritious, high fiber foods. Over the next two days, I dined on double fiber bread (5 gms/fiber), high fiber oatmeal (a whopping TEN gms/fiber per serving), high fiber tortillas, high fiber English muffins, high fiber pasta, high fiber yogurt, even high fiber V-8 juice--you can DRINK your fiber--yes! All were consumed in addition to the naturally high fiber fruits and veggies I crammed into my refrigerator. (Of course, I knew enough to wash all this down with quarts of water. I'm not stupid.) I reported to my daughter Amy that, "I'm not even a tiny bit hungry...in fact, I feel a little...bloated."

I'm sure it didn't help that Monday was also the day I initiated my new vitamin regimen, chewing two Flintstones Vitamins Plus Iron each morning--totally disregarding the fact that all iron supplements have historically had an adverse effect on me.

When I became sick on Wednesday with a fever and chills, all suspicion turned to my fiber-laden larder. "I feel like I have ingested the equivalent of a small Redwood tree," I lamented to anyone who would listen. "What is IN this crap--sawdust?!" I have spent the past five days sipping chicken broth and eating plain white saltines--also excellent diet choices, btw. For future reference, I would highly recommend you not eat a lot of fiber just prior to getting the flu. You CAN have too much of a good thing. Trust me.

A Tale of Two Pities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
Last week, we had two members of this household recovering from surgical procedures--our daughter, Stephanie, had her wisdom teeth removed the same day our kitten, Mimzy, went to the vet to be spayed. Stephie was admonished to rest, drink fluids, take prescribed pain meds on schedule, alternately ice and heat her swollen cheeks, and gently rinse with salt water. On Mimzy's discharge papers, we were instructed to, "Limit your pet's activity" and "discourage licking of the incision site." Who do you think followed the doctor's instructions? And who was feeling better sooner? Based on my observations of the past week, I have concluded that the real key to healing lies in bounding around the living room--repeatedly jumping from the coffee table to the sofa, chasing everything that moves--including your own tail, drinking out of the sink, batting at the icon on the computer screen...and a whole lot of cat spit.