Health Benefits of Dietary Fiber - Food and Health

Health Benefits of Dietary Fiber

Fiber this nutritional and dietary term gets used a lot and people seem to think it's important but what is it why does it matter classically fiber is known for preventing or relieving constipation but what other health benefits does it have so first I just want to talk about what fiber is roughly speaking it is the part of plants that is indigestible sometimes referred to as roughage or bulk and when I say indigestible I mean that your body either does not have the natural enzymes to break the plant components down or that the transit time in our body is too fast for us to break it down the content varies widely from plant to plant but includes substances like lightnin which is part of the plant cell wall Polly and oligosaccharides which refers to various types of carbohydrates but in this case specifically things like cellulose and inulin and certain starches that we can't digest basically what happens is the fiber gets through your entire gastrointestinal tract without any substantial changes in its composition well it certainly looks different this is significant because it can modify the landscape of our GI tract and also affect how other various foods are absorbed so there's some fairly good evidence that shows that dietary fiber does have some benefits this includes most prominently normalizing your bowel movement so it will increase the weight size and soften your stool it can actually help with both constipation and hardening up of loose stools if you suffer from either problem it will pull your bowel movements back towards the middle and normalize them it's helpful more for maintaining bowel health including reducing risk of hemorrhoids and that particular disease which can lead to diverticulitis it can lower cholesterol levels soluble fiber does appear to help inhibit your body's absorption of certain bad fats such as low density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol which have been linked to increased risk of heart attack stroke and dementia it also appears to help in diabetics seems to help slow the absorption of sugar and maintain lower blood sugar levels and it actually may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes it's also been shown to help maintain a healthy wait high fiber diets are more filling so you are likely to eat less food they're also less energy dense meaning fewer calories in the same volume of food and though better research is needed it may also help with lowering blood pressure acting as an anti-inflammatory and helping with colorectal cancer prevention although the evidence is mixed before

I talk about sources I'm just going to review the two types the first is soluble meaning it will dissolve in water and your gastrointestinal tract and form a gel-like substance and your guts soluble fiber appears to help more with lowering cholesterol and blood sugar and the second type is non soluble meaning it does not dissolve in water and promotes movement of material through your guts non-soluble appears to help more with an overall healthy digestive tract and treating constipation while most plant-based foods contain a combination of both soluble and insoluble fiber the specific content varies widely from food to food the best sources of soluble fiber include oats peas beans apples citrus fruits carrots barley and psyllium for insoluble that would be whole-wheat fiber wheat bran nuts beans and vegetables such as cauliflower green beans and potatoes okay sources include supplements like Metamucil they have less variety of fiber and are also stripped of other nutritional content but they're better than nothing but not as good as the foods above food so if I were added like cereal yogurt and gorilla bars are also not bad sources but the bad sources are refined processed foods such as canned fruits and vegetables white breads and pastas and cereals that are not whole-grain according to the Institute of Medicine men under 50 should get 38 grams per day in over 50 30 grams per day and women under 50 should get 25 per day and over should get 21 per day and then of course make sure to drink lots of water as fiber works best when absorbed by water and so a conclusion we can make the following statements fiber is part of the plant that is indigestible research has proven it helps normalize bowel movements maintain gut health lower cholesterol improved blood sugar control and help maintain a healthy weight it may also help with hypertension inflammation and colorectal cancer there are two types soluble and insoluble and both have their merits and finally the best sources of dietary fiber are fruits vegetables whole grains and legumes...