One of the ways to greatly improve your health and give a boost to your diet is to add fiber to your diet. Fiber makes the trip through your body with no real change in its structure, since the human body lacks what is needed to digest it. Despite our body's in ability to do anything with fiber, that is exactly why fiber is good for us.
It comes from the structural network of cells in plants, which includes wheat and grains, fruits, nuts, veggies, anything which is grown from the earth. It can go by names such a roughage or bulk, and because it does not break down in our bodies, it works like a squeegee, cleaning out the intestines and promoting general health. They can also promote a healthy weight, helping individuals lose weight. High-fiber diets work by filling you up. The bulk moniker comes from the fact that fiber is filling, and foods high in fiber have much fewer calories than other foods. The only chance to break down fiber is by chewing, and that is not an easy process. You take much longer to eat and have more of a chance to notice when you are full.
Recent research have discovered that fiber does a lot more for our health. When fiber enters the body, the body releases cholecystokinin, which tells your systems that you are full and do not need to eat more. High fiber diets can also reduce the chance for a number of diseases. Type 2 diabetes is greatly reduced among those who eat a fiber rich diet, as well as heart disease. Those who do have diabetes can benefit from fiber, since it works to slow the absorption of sugars, regulating blood glucose levels after eating.
There are two general classifications to fiber; soluble fiber that dissolves in water or other fluids, and insoluble fiber, which will not dissolve in fluids. Soluble fiber will gel in water and is the fiber responsible for diabetes and heart risk protection. It is found in oats, apples, beans, and other similar plants. Insoluble fiber comes from nuts, many vegetables and wheat. It is the fiber responsible for really cleaning out your intestinal system.
What is important is that processing plant products is like chewing, it breaks down fiber before you have a chance to chew. Every time the plant is processed, fiber is reduced. White rice, refined cereals, cookies, crackers, white bread, all have little fiber. It is no wonder that the typical American diet is only about half to a third of what is recommended. Fiber can be supplanted through diet, or taking a supplement. What ever route you choose, go slow and drink lots of water. Fiber absorbs water and if you increase fiber without increasing water, you can get dehydrated and negatively reinforce proper fiber intake. A quick change may be followed by gas, feeling bloated or cramping, but that will go away. Adding fiber slowly will prevent systems and put you on the tract to increase health.
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Originally posted 2009-02-23 05:25:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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3 comments ↓
There is no doubt in my mind that eating fiber is one of the keys to losing weight. The fact that it fills you up and cleans you out is the key. Thanks for the post.
- Dave
Well, sure – if you’re currently living on processed garbage like fast food, upping the fibre via adding fruits and veggies is going to improve our diet. But the jury is most definitely still as to whether its the fibre that’s good for us. For many people, fibre is a problem
(i.e. people with IBS), and for the rest of us, we don’t yet fully understand the issues that we may be causing by religiously sending that roughage through our delicate intestinal system.
Dr. Eades wrote up a discussion highlighting the religion that has been built around fibre and its ‘net result’ earlier this year – worth a read: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/a-cautionary-tale-of-mucus-fore-and-aft/
Danny Roddy drew upon that post and also an interview with Lex Rooker, plus relevant sections of Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories in his own post analysing the apparent necessity of fibre: http://www.carnivorehealth.com/main/2009/4/17/screw-you-fiber.html
I tend to wonder whether the observed benefits of fibre consumption are in the same category as the benefits of vegetarianism, exercise, or supplement consumption – the fact that those individuals who are including the ‘healthy’ choice in their lifestyle are also the ones who aren’t smoking, drinking, eating McDonalds… etc. It’s what they AREN’T doing that is more important than they fact they ARE doing whatever the ‘healthy’ activity of interest.
Looking at those ‘benefits’ of fibre also has me wondering whether we’re reading them incorrectly…
1. I don’t know anything about cholecystokinin, but if it tells us that we’re full once fibre enters our system, couldn’t that be a built-in mechanism of our bodies to get us to STOP eating fibrous foods? Perhaps we evolved to physiologically know that too much vegetation will mean to much anti-nutrient or phyto-toxin entering our system?
2. The ‘gut scouring effect’ – why do we need that? Having lived on an all-meat diet, I know that in the absolute absence of fibre, our guts can run perfectly well, smoothly, and empty as completely as possible (especially if we squat rather than sit on conventional toilets). To send insoluble fibre down there just ends up with intestinal irritation (demonstrated by stool mucus production, the body’s response to “get this damaging crap away from my delicate intestinal walls!”), and fermentation – i.e. flatulence. Again, if we’re eating processed foods, maybe sending the equivalent of steel wool through our guts may help to clean out chemicals (although they’ve probably been absorbed by the liver or packed into fat cells at that point). But why would we assume we need to do that? Other carnivorous animals (i.e. dogs and cats) only consume roughage to vomit it back up again, so they obviously don’t need a thorough internal scrub, and our systems are similar to theirs – especially in that we don’t have the digestive systems required to fully digest and ferment fibre for fuel, as you state.
While it may be helpful for dieters who are out of touch with their own satiety indicators and have to depend on stuffing themselves with bulky low-cal foods to prevent over-eating, I think it’s important to consider the negative effects and lack of necessity of fibre before espousing to the world that it’s the #1 change to make if you want to improve your health and lose weight.
Absolutely, fiber is a great starting point. It expands with water and fills the stomach – keeping hunger at bay. And it also helps slow down the digestion of your food – resulting in a more uniform release of glucose into the bloodstream. Keeping blood glucose at a nice steady level helps keep insulin low – providing an optimal environment for fat burning.
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