| " A fruity mixture goes well with the eggy, toasted flavor of the cooked bread. Today's recipe combines canned pears and raisins with spices and nuts for a topping that melds perfectly with the bread but doesn't have the calories and fat of traditional French toast toppers. " " Notice that a serving of this French toast gives you 6 grams of fiber. That is significantly higher than standard French toast made with white bread and without fruit topping. It's the whole-wheat bread plus the pears and raisins that raise the amount of fiber. If you use the nuts, your fiber will be a bit higher per serving. " " Fiber is important for many reasons. Although we don't actually digest it, fiber travels through our small and large intestines attracting water and adhering to some cholesterol molecules. By attracting water, fiber helps add bulk to the waste our body must excrete, making movement of that waste more efficient and easier. " " Certain types of fiber actually help lower cholesterol because the cholesterol molecules waiting to be absorbed in the small intestine end up attaching to fiber particles and become part of the body's waste. Since those cholesterol molecules never get absorbed, they never get into the bloodstream to add to our total cholesterol values. " " Other types of fiber help slow the absorption of glucose molecules into the blood. These glucose molecules still get absorbed, but just at a slower rate. Normally, when glucose is absorbed into the blood, our pancreas secretes insulin. Insulin is key to getting the blood glucose into the body's cells. Our cells can then use the glucose for energy. " " But when there is a lot of glucose in the blood waiting to get into the cells, as there would be after a large high-carbohydrate meal or snack, sometimes our pancreas can't secrete insulin fast enough to get the right amount of glucose into our cells. When that happens, our blood glucose (also called blood sugar) levels go up. This is especially a problem for folks with diabetes. " " With a diet higher in fiber, the absorption of glucose is slowed down. This allows our pancreas to have a better chance of keeping the insulin supply at adequate amounts in the blood. Enough insulin secreted by the pancreas means the insulin can get the glucose from the bloodstream into the cells at just the right rate, keeping blood glucose levels within the normal range. " " Fiber comes only from plant foods. It's just not a part of animal tissue, so we get no fiber from meats, milk, eggs or cheese. " " Most Americans get only about
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