ROTATION DIET: VALUES OF A DIET LOW IN FAT AND HIGH IN DIETARY FIBER

There are two factors that prevent weight gain when you increase complex carbohydrates in your diet (whole grains, fruits, and vegetables) and decrease fats.

First, these foods, and only these foods, contain dietary fiber. Fiber is included in the calorie counts in your calorie books, but the body doesn't digest these calories! Our stomachs and intestines don't have the appropriate enzymes to break down that fiber (other animals do). So, depending on the particular carbohydrate foods you eat, perhaps 10 percent or even more of the total listed calories passes right through your system as roughage.

Second, as an extra metabolic benefit, the fiber contained in the complex carbohydrates will tangle up about 10 percent of the dietary fat you eat, and that, too, will pass right through your system without being digested.

So, can you, in fact, "increase your metabolism through eating?" If you substitute complex carbohydrates for fats in your diet, the answer is yes. If you cut your fat consumption in half, and, instead, start eating fresh fruits and vegetables and whole-grain products, you will end up needing a couple of hundred extra calories each day, over and above what you are presently eating, just to maintain your present body weight. This amounts to a considerable increase in your total daily metabolic needs.

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