Veggies, fiber, and poop

“Eat your vegetables.” - Moms everywhere

I don’t have to tell you that vegetables are important for your health. But do you know why? In this blog post, I’m going to give you some practical wisdom about vegetables.

Oh, you’re here because you saw the word “poop” in the title? I’ll get to that too.

Why Vegetables Are Important

Vegetables are important because they are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Vitamins and minerals are things that we need in small quantities (called micronutrients - nerd alert!), and are critical to keep our bodies functioning properly and optimally. The downside is that you usually don’t feel this. Nobody is like “damn, I can tell that my niacin levels are low, better each some vegetables”. But if you don’t typically eat many veggies, try adding one serving per day for a week and just see how you feel. Maybe you’re getting more micronutrients, and your body chooses to thank you with more energy.

So let’s get into the WIFM (what’s in it for me) of vegetables on a day-to-day basis: they make you feel full and help you stay regular.

Vegetables contain fiber, a part of the plant that our body can’t fully digest. This helps create bulk in your stool and keeps you staying regular. If you’re just into veggies for the doo-doo benefits, that’s fine. Staying regular is important for sure.

What’s even better (IMO), the fiber in veggies helps you feel full. This is a really helpful tool if you’re looking to lose weight. Remember, the only way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend. So if you’re eating less food, chances are you might be hungry from time to time. This is totally normal. One thing you can do to help your hunger is to eat more foods with fiber. Also, since cruciferous vegetables (the non-starchy ones) are quite low in the calorie department, you can eat a bunch of them and still stay on course for your diet.

I want you to remember this - nobody ever gained weight from eating too many (cruciferous) vegetables. You can feel free to overindulge on them.

As long as you’re up for eating vegetables, aim for eating as many different colored veggies as you can. The different colors point to different nutrients, and the more diverse, the better. A helpful cliche is to eat the rainbow.