Since time immemorial, diet advice has been handed out just like opinions. Everyone’s got one and no one is afraid to share.

Sometimes, in the midst of the latest greatest diet craze, common sense gets lost or overlooked in favor of a quicker (but sometimes less healthy) way to shed a few pounds.

The road to weight loss is generally the same road to general good health and well-being, with a common sense approach.

Eating a diet high in fiber not only helps you to lose those stubborn pounds, but also helps stave off some pretty serious, and uncomfortable, illnesses and diseases.

A high-fiber diet helps prevent such diseases as diverticulosis, hemorrhoids, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, colon cancer, diabetes and even heart disease.

The general American diet is very low in fiber, only about 10-13 grams per day, but we reportedly need 30-40 grams per day to get the fiber we need for our bodies to do their thing properly.

The best way to get fiber is not through a supplement or icky drink mix. The very best way to get that fiber is from fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Try adding a few more fruits and vegetables into your diet, like apples, blueberries, strawberries, and apricots, as well as carrots, kale, cucumbers, and spinach. These are delicious and add lots of healthy fiber as well as other vital nutrients. Summer is coming, and these are about to be readily available at your local grocery or farmer’s market.

Also tray adding more fiber with grains, beans and legumes like almonds, cashews, quinoa, brown rice, and whole grain bread. There are many ways to add fiber with these kinds of grains just by making small changes like switching to brown rice instead of white or whole grain bread instead of the plain white varieties. Make your PB&J with whole grain bread and grab an apple instead of a bag of chips.

There are many ways to add important fiber to your diet and by changing a few things about the way you eat, and it will be worth it if you could prevent some unsavory body function issues, right?

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