Health professionals have long known about the benefits of dietary fiber. Good digestion and regularity are just two of the benefits of a diet high in fiber. What most people don’t know is that a getting lots of fiber in their diet has many other health benefits.
Here are just some of the ways that getting fiber in your diet can be good for your health:
1. Prevention of certain kinds of cancer. Studies have shown that passage of food through the body is faster when fiber is eaten. This acts to prevent certain harmful substances that are found in food from affecting the colon. The incidence of colon cancer has been shown to be lower in groups of people that eat a diet high in fiber.
2. Heart disease. There is growing evidence that a diet rich in soluble fiber such as oats, beans and rye has a positive impact on cholesterol and other agents in the blood that are known to cause heart disease.
3. Keeps your blood sugar levels at an even level. Fiber found in foods like bran and beans slows down the absorption of sugar in the intestines. This keeps your blood sugar from spiking up and down and that keeps your insulin levels stable. This has the added benefit of helping the body to store less fat.
4. Controlling diabetes. Avoiding diabetes means keeping your blood sugar levels stable. Dietary fiber is great for slowing down your sugar absorption and keeping blood sugar levels low. That’s why doctors tell you that it’s much healthier to eat the whole orange rather than just a glass of orange juice. Orange juice has all the sugar but little fiber. By eating the whole orange, the fiber keeps all that sugar from dumping into your bloodstream all at once.
5. Gets your appetite under control. When you eat foods that are high in fiber you get filled up fast with foods that are generally low in calories. Digestion of fiber takes longer so you’ll keep that feeling of fullness longer. You’ll also be eating slower and getting a lot less fat in your diet.
These are just some of the reasons to make sure you’re eating foods high in fiber. And getting enough fiber is really pretty painless. If you try to include more healthy grains, beans, fruit and vegetables with every meal you’ll get enough fiber in your diet to start reaping all these benefits and more.
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