Extra Fabulous News About Fiber

Given the blood sugar, cholesterol, and appetite-controlling effects of fiber, who wouldn't sing its praises? Now, here's another verse for the song.

And it's written specially for women. Dietary fiber may help reduce the risk of the most common female reproductive cancer.

One More for the Ladies
A newly published review of scientific studies revealed that getting a decent amount of fiber in the diet -- at least 5 grams for every 1,000 calories consumed -- could lower the risk of endometrial cancer by as much as 20 percent. (For maximum RealAge benefits, though, strive for at least 25 grams a day. And here's where you should get 'em.)

How to Get There
If you eat about 2,000 calories a day, you only need to grab a cup of oatmeal for breakfast (4 grams), snack on an ounce of almonds in the afternoon (3.5 grams), and have a medium-sized baked potato with the skin at dinner (5 grams) to put you above the range that proved beneficial in the study. To get to the RealAge Optimum dose, add half a cup of raspberries (4 grams) to your oatmeal and top your potato with half a cup of black beans (8 grams). You're there.

And to help keep yourself from feeling bloated by all the extra fiber, pair it with this.

Association between dietary fiber and endometrial cancer: a dose-response meta-analysis. Bandera, E. V. et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007 Dec;86(6):1730-1737.