You have probably heard you need to eat more fiber. But do you know why fiber is such an important ingredient for good health?
Dietary fiber is best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation, but fiber can provide other health benefits as well, such as lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease, keeping your digestive system healthy, assisting in weight loss and weight management and lowering cholesterol. Fiber has also been thought to assist in the prevention of some cancers.
Fiber is made up of parts of plants your body can’t digest. Fiber is often classified into two categories: those that don't dissolve in water (insoluble fiber) and those that do (soluble fiber).
Soluble fiber dissolves to form a gel-like substance that moves slowly through the intestine, prolonging stomach emptying and making you feel full longer. It can also assist those with diabetes in regulating blood sugar levels. Sources of soluble fiber are oats, legumes (beans, peas, and soybeans), flax seed, apples, bananas, berries, barely and some vegetables.
Insoluble fiber increases the movement of material through your digestive track. Insoluble fiber helps best with constipation due to its ability to increase your stool bulk. Some sources of insoluble fiber include whole wheat foods, bran, nuts, seeds, the skin of some fruits and dark leafy green vegetables.
Several recent studies show eating a diet rich in fiber promotes greater weight loss than those without. One of the reasons may be fibers ability to slow the movement of food through the intestines. This increase in time that foods stay in the intestines reduces hunger feelings and decreases the number of calories that are actually absorbed from the ingested food.
In addition to the benefits already listed, fiber also has the ability to:
- Slow the digestion of high glycemic foods
- Cling to cholesterol in the intestine, helping rid the body of it
- Absorbs bacterial toxins in the intestine
- Speed the excretion of gallstone promoting bile
- Support the immune system by crowding out harmful bacteria in the colon
- Bulk up stool and make it easy to pass
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