Health Matters: Fiber
Fiber is the part of fruits, vegetables, and grains your body can’t digest. There are two kinds, both important in keeping you healthy. Soluble fiber dissolves easily in water and becomes a soft gel in your intestines. Insoluble fiber remains unchanged as it speeds up your food’s trip through your digestive system.
Bumping up the fiber in your diet can help you avoid these conditions – or deal with them in a healthier way.
Diabetes. Fiber helps improve the way your body handles insulin and glucose. That means you can lower your risk of diabetes by eating whole grains rather than refined carbohydrates. Dark rye bread, whole-wheat crackers, multi-grain bagels, and bran muffins are good choices.
Heart attacks and strokes. The soluble fiber in foods like oatmeal, okra, and oranges helps eliminate much of the cholesterol that can clog your arteries and cause a stroke or heart attack.
Constipation and hemorrhoids. If fiber intake were adequate, laxatives would seldom be required. Apples, sweet potatoes, barley, and pinto beans provide this roughage. Some say a better name for fiber would be “softage, ” because it keeps the stool moist, soft, and easy to eliminate.
Appendicitis. Keeping bowel content soft seems to provide the best safeguard against the development of appendicitis. Treats like apricots and peaches are a tasty way to do this.
Diverticulosis. As your body processes fibrous foods like peas, spinach, and corn, it tones up your intestinal muscles. This helps prevent pouches, called diverticula, which can cause abdominal pain if they become inflamed.
Weight gain. The best way to lose weight is to eat low-fat, low-calorie vegetables and grains. The more bulky fiber-rich foods you eat, the less fat you will be consuming, and vice versa. And since the fiber swells, you’ll feel satisfied faster. If you have room for dessert, choose fruits like plums or strawberries.
Cancer. A high-fiber diet defends against colon and rectal cancers in two ways. Cultural studies showed the more animal fat in a diet, the highest the incidence of bowel cancer. The more bulky, fiber-rich foods people eat, the less unhealthy fat they consume.
Not only that, but a healthy portion of fiber speeds cancer-causing compounds out of the digestive system more quickly – before they have a chance to make trouble.
Even if experts debate how all this really works, anyone who loads their plate with whole grains, legumes, fresh fruits, and vegetables will say there’s no argument with natural success.
Fiber is considered a protector against other conditions, like gallbladder disease, varicose veins, and hiatal hernia.
How To Fit More Fiber Into Your Day
Now that you have so many good reasons to eat fiber, consider these ways to get more into your diet. But don’t overdo it. Adding too much fiber to your diet too quickly can cause unpleasant side effects, like gas, bloating, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. Your best bet is to add fibrous foods gradually.
Start the day with a whole-grain cereal. Read food labels to find a cereal that contains at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. Top it off with raisins, sliced bananas, or chopped apple.
Eat some vegetables raw. Munch on carrot or celery sticks, and lunch on a crunchy garden salad. When you cook vegetables, steam or sauté them just until tender.
Eat fresh fruits. And whenever possible, eat the skins of fruits and vegetables. That is where you will find the most fiber.
Substitute brown rice for white. With that switch, you will triple the fiber. Try some less familiar unprocessed grains as well, like bulgur, couscous, or kasha.
Add beans to soups and stews. To prevent gas and bloating, don’t cook dried beans in the same water you soak them in.
Sip some psyllium. Sometimes dental problems make chewing difficult, and you have to choose soft, low-fiber foods. At times like these, it may be helpful to supplement your diet with Metamucil”made from the fiber of ground psyllium seeds. This isn’t a laxative, but it can help your bowels function normally if you take it daily, not just when you are constipated.