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Survival in Tough Times

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bran



Give Us This Day Our Daily Bran
They say to keep aging at bay, we should keep moving. I always just thought that meant to be active, chase the dog, play with the kids, work in the garden, mow your own grass, and wash the windows. Turns out there are other things that ought to keep moving, if you get my drift. Even as a kid, I made my favorite food choices based on taste. I don’t care what it looks like, and I don’t care about the texture. Years ago someone told me they didn’t like pears because of the texture. What does that even mean? Or someone will say ‘don’t give me that apple, it’s all rough and brown on the outside’. Duh! It’s a russet! Have you ever tried one? Peel the darn thing! There are people who won’t eat okra because when you cook it, it’s “slimy.” Really? You ought to see what just about every thing looks like when it reaches your stomach! It’s why you have spit. Okra is just helping you out. Ever eat a peach? They’re so slimy you can hardly hold one in your hand long enough to get it to take a bite. Don’t believe me? Try eating a handful of saltines and then whistle. It’s the same scientific principle.
Lay’s potato chips commercial with Bert Lahr and the Devil


It’s all about the taste! When I was a little kid my mom often made brown n’ serve dinner rolls. They were good. I was still in grade school when she brought home whole wheat brown n’ serve dinner rolls. I was eight, so I’d eat most anything except tomatoes. I tore one apart, put some butter atop one of the halves, and down the hatch! Hmmmm! As Bert Lahr used to say, “I’ll have another!” It was an instant hit with me. I could see the pieces of bran in it, and the flavor was nutty and rich and just way better than aristocratic old white bread. I began to ask my mom to get more. Turns out there were other products that were better, too. Whole wheat bread became the regular thing in our house. Wonder Bread never had a home with us again. There were bran muffins. Some cereals even had bran in them, what was then called “roughage.” For some reason we were supposed to have roughage in our diets. Who cares? It tastes good, so why not? Horses eat bran. Who doesn’t want to be healthy as a horse?

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There are two types of fiber, both of which are important to digestion

There’s no need to get all gross and graphic about what happens when your diet is heavy with processed white bread versus better-tasting whole wheat bread. Let’s just say one is better than the other. It turns out the civilized term is “fiber.” There are two types of fiber, both of which are important to digestion. Soluble fiber, found in foods like oat bran, barley, nuts, seeds, and fruit, attracts water and turns to gel during digestion, slowing your GI system down. Insoluble fiber, found in wheat bran, vegetables, and whole grains, adds bulk to, uh, the process, helping you digest more quickly. Then there’s muesli, if you want to go the hippie route. Finding an understanding of how dietary fiber works is a strictly individual thing. Although I dislike Plato because he’s such an arrogant, statist stuffed shirt, he understood this issue. “Do thine own work, and know thyself.” Rodin had to be thinking about Plato’s pithy saying when he sculpted the Thinker statue. Concentration always helps. There are useful notations on the Nutrition Facts label on most food products these days. The serving size varies, but boxed cereal often uses a serving size of one cup. For spaghetti, it’s two ounces. Whole oats uses ½ cup. The labels list calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, protein, and fiber, among other things. The fiber level varies, often surprisingly. I tend to monitor fiber levels and make my grocery choices on the basis of breakfast cereals and breads. Fluffy sugar cereals like Cap’n Crunch have less than one gram of fiber per cup. Kix has three grams because it uses whole grain corn and “corn bran,” whatever that is. Cheerios has three. Total has two grams, but whole grain Total has three. Crunchy granola raisin bran has six grams, while regular raisin bran has 5-9, depending on brand. Grape Nuts flakes has three grams, but regular Grape Nuts has seven. Plain Shredded Wheat has eight grams, as does Wheat Chex. In general, seven or eight grams per serving is pretty high. It pays to read the labels. Barilla plain spaghetti has two grams of fiber per two-ounce serving. But their whole grain spaghetti has seven grams. Vegetables offer some fiber, too. Baked beans have around five grams per half cup serving, but who only eats half a cup of baked beans? Canned corn might have only two or so for the same sized serving. At any rate, it pays to read the labels. The protein and fats part is interesting, but you’ll be amazed at how much sugar there is in many food products.

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So it’s a daily quest for what is normal for each of us

Manufacturers are supposed to list the ingredients in quantity order. For sugary cereals, sugar is usually the second ingredient, and sometimes there are two or more kinds of sugar. For cereals with higher fiber contents, whole grains monopolize the top levels, and sugar is further down. To up the fiber levels, other grains and other products may be used, even cellulose. Read carefully. The label lists the fiber content for the serving size. Twice the serving size gives me twice the fiber, but the fiber can be added up. If I put raisins on one cup of Wheat Chex, I get ten grams of fiber, and that helps. The main idea is to note the daily intake, then note the results. What works for one may not work for everyone. Like Plato said, know thyself. It’s harder to keep things moving on a schedule when dieting. It took me years to figure this one out. It’s just a question of volume, really. The grams of dietary fiber are cumulative during the day. If I have two bowls of shredded wheat for breakfast, that’s different than having just one. Depending on what I eat the rest of the day, one bowl might be enough. Or not. When the quantities of what we eat change, then the fiber intake might need to change. So it’s a daily quest for what is normal for each of us. We can make our own maps to use the next time we need to return to a good path.


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Dr. Bruce Smith -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II,  may be ordered from Indiana University Press.


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