Importance of dietary fiber
Dietary fiber is a topic that unfortunately most people don’t pay much if any, attention to. And it’s not hard to understand why, because the role of fiber in our diet is often viewed in a very limited way.
If you are not regular, take a little fiber.
In the past 10 years, however, the role of dietary fiber in our health has seen a huge shift in understanding, and its importance cannot be understated. It goes way beyond being regular and fundamentally impacts our heart, mind and overall state of health.
If you are looking at the most important lifestyle changes you can make to promote improved health, increasing your fiber ranks up there with more exercise, more sleep, and better overall nutrition.
Why dietary fiber is important:
Fiber helps clean out bacteria and other buildup in your intestines, and reduces your risk for colon cancer. A high Fiber diet helps keep you regular and reduces constipation.
Fiber boosts the population of good bacteria in the gut, which is linked with improved immunity & anti-inflammatory effects. A healthy gut is critical to overall health and well being.
Fiber slows the absorption of cholesterol and sugar into the blood, thus protecting against heart disease, the number one killer.
It also helps control blood sugar in people with diabetes.
New research has found that fiber can improve brain health and reduce cognitive decline in old age. If you need one reason to increase your fiber, let this be the one.
Daily fiber intake should be 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. And that should be considered a minimum. Currently, adults average about 15 grams a day, with 90%+ not getting enough.
This fact somewhat implies that our diet is subpar, with few vegetables, and filled with low fiber foods such as white bread & rice, pasta, refined grains, processed, fast & packaged foods, breakfast cereals, often stuffed with sugar, and fried foods. You know, the typical, nutrient light, Western diet.
The good news is that if you increase your daily fiber from natural sources, it’s guaranteed you will improve your overall nutritional intake, because, along with fiber will come vitamins, antioxidants and all the other micronutrients you find in real food!
To address your fiber shortfall, take a few days and add up your approximate intake, how much for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Then you can start to do something about it.
See our video: Fiber, getting enough?
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