4 Health Benefits of Fiber
Are you getting enough fiber in your diet? If you are like the majority of Americans, you are probably falling short of the daily recommendation. For women, the recommended daily amount of fiber is 25 grams and for men it is 38 grams. Why should we aim for this amount of fiber in our diet? Keep reading to learn about the health benefits of fiber!
Fiber has many health benefits including playing a role in weight control, heart health, blood glucose control, and regularity.
Let’s dive into more detail about each of these topics and learn about some good sources of fiber. So grab a bowl of popcorn, a good source of fiber, and start reaching your fiber goal while learning about its health benefits!
1. Weight Control
Yep that’s right! Fiber helps us maintain our weight or even lose weight. How does this work? Well to put it in simple terms, the stomach and intestines have stretch receptors. When stretched to an appropriate level, the stretch receptors send a signal to our brain to say we are full. Think of our stomachs as a balloon. The more air in the balloon, the more the balloon is stretched. The larger volume of food in our stomach, the more our stomach is stretched, activating the stretch receptors to tell our brain we are full.
High fiber foods tend to take up more space and are lower in calories than low fiber foods. We refer to these low calorie, high fiber and volume foods as “low calorie dense foods.” Foods high in calories and low in fiber and volume are referred to as “high calorie dense foods.” By eating low calorie dense foods, the stomach and intestines are stretched more with less calories than with high calorie dense foods, leading us to feel full sooner and eat fewer calories. Fiber also takes longer for our bodies to digest, meaning we stay full for longer.
Let’s get a visual to help us understand this concept. Imagine our stomach as a balloon. If we put 1 medium apple in the balloon, it will fill the balloon with a little over a cup of volume, provide about 100 calories and around 4.4 grams of fiber. Now, if we fill up the balloon with the same amount of pretzels, we would get 150 calories and only 1.4 grams of fiber. Both of these snacks fill us up about the same amount, but the apple provides fewer calories and more fiber, leading us to eat fewer calories throughout the day and keeping us full for longer.
2. Heart Health
So how does fiber help keep our heart healthy? Fiber helps remove extra cholesterol from our digestive track and prevents it from getting absorbed into our bloodstream. The fiber acts as a magnet and binds to dietary cholesterol, which is then excreted in our waste. Too much cholesterol in our bodies can lead to plaque build-up in the artery walls leading to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke.
3. Blood Glucose Control
Having good control over your blood glucose levels is incredibly important if you have a diagnosis of pre-diabetes or diabetes. Eating more fiber can help in several ways. As we previously discussed, high fiber foods are more filling and can help us consume less calories overall, which can lead to weight loss. If you are overweight, losing 5-10% of your body weight can be beneficial in controlling blood sugar levels.
Have you ever eaten a meal and then less than an hour later felt hungry again? This might be because the meal you ate was low in fiber and high in processed carbohydrates. Highly processed carbohydrates are digested quickly and cause blood sugar levels to spike rapidly. This leaves you feeling tired and hungry once your blood sugar levels drop.
Fiber slows down the digestion process, causing the sugar in the food to be absorbed into the bloodstream over a longer period of time. This leads blood sugar levels to stay more consistent and stable. If you have diabetes, more fiber in your diet will lead to better blood sugar control. Additionally, you may even be able to reduce your diabetes medication, if your doctor sees fit.
**Do not adjust your medication unless directed by your doctor to do so.
4. Bowel Regularity and Gut Health
Last but not least! Gut health! Fiber keeps our intestines happy and healthy. There are two different types of fiber, soluble and insoluble fiber.
Soluble fiber turns into a gel like consistency when in water. This type of fiber helps remove cholesterol from the intestines and can help lower blood sugar levels. Soluble fiber is found in oats, beans, peas, oranges, apples, carrots, chia seeds, lentils and barley, just to name a few.
Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water and is digested by healthy gut bacteria. Insoluble fiber provides bulk to stool and can help prevent constipation. Soluble fiber can be found in whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes.
Be cautious of fruit or vegetable juice! Fiber is removed during the juicing process and important vitamins can be lost during the juicing process. Stick to eating whole fruits and vegetables or blend up a fruit and veggie filled smoothie!
When increasing your fiber consumption, start slowly to avoid bloating, constipation and abdominal cramping. Increase your intake by 5 grams per day for the first week, and then continually increase your intake over the next several weeks. Be sure to increase the amount of water you drink each day to help prevent constipation. Below are four easy ways to add more fiber into your day.
- Reach for fruit, vegetables, or nuts/ seeds as a midmorning or midday snack.
- Switch from cold breakfast cereal to a bowl of oatmeal or a high-fiber breakfast cereal, such as shredded wheat.
- Choose 100% whole grain products instead of enriched/ processed grains.
- Add chia seeds to smoothies, yogurt, and baked goods.
Are you convinced to eat more fiber?
Check out my Dark Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal for a delicious and healthy way to start your day! It is packed with 10.5 grams of fiber which gets females 40% of the way to your daily goal and males 27% of the way to your daily goal!
