There are two types of food fibers, soluble and insoluble, and both variants have significant positive impact on the body. However, you need to buy whole grains and fresh vegetables because processed foods eliminate fibers. The 7 points here tell you why it is important to include plenty of fibers in your diet.
1. Soluble fibers increase satiety
The soluble food fibers found in nuts, beans, blueberries, and cucumbers dissolve in the water content of your stomach, forming a gel like solution.
This increases the sense of satiety and helps you to delay the next serving significantly. You also benefit from the nutrients present in these nuts and vegetables.
Fiber itself is not nutritional per se, but it is still useful for a full meal. Many diet plans also take advantage of this benefit. In fact, you can also prepare your own diet plan if you have the informative resources. Fibrous foods also require more chewing time than the non-fibrous ones, leading to slow but good digestion.
2. Insoluble fibers help in bowel movement
This benefit is very easy to understand. When the fibers are insoluble, they accumulate in your stomach and put a downward pressure due to natural gravity.
This extra pressure is very useful in clearing the bowels of accumulated food. You can find the insoluble fibers in foods such as carrots, celery, green beans, and green leafy vegetables.
You can also get the best of both worlds in certain fruits and vegetables that consists both soluble and insoluble fibers. In addition, the insoluble category of fibrous foods can be vital in decreasing the risk of having the intestinal infection Diverticulitis. They also decrease the chances of hemorrhoids. People suffering from Irritable bowel syndrome or constipation can greatly benefit from this extra ‘push’.
3. Control of blood sugar level
The soluble fibers have a major health benefit in slowing the digestive system. A decelerated digestion means slow breakdown of carbohydrates and decreased absorption of sugar in the blood stream.
Many dietitians recommend a high fiber diet to people dealing with a high blood sugar. In addition, the regulation of blood sugar also reduces the chances of developing kidney stones or gall bladder stones.
4. Lowering blood cholesterol levels
The LDL or the Low Density Lipoprotein is the ‘bad’ guy in the cholesterol business. Studies reveal that soluble fibers in oats, beans, oat bran, and flaxseeds can help in lowering the level of LDL in blood. This implies they are immensely good for your cardiac health over the long period of time. These may also have other cardiac related benefits such as healing inflammations and reducing blood pressure.
5. Boosts skin health
You may not be aware, but your blood does have traces of yeast and fungus. These are inflammation-causing elements, erupting as pimples and acnes.
Fiber foods, especially psyllium husk help clean your body of these natural toxins. They are good detoxifiers and help you to maintain a healthy glow in long-term. If you are suffering from rashes or acnes, try including insoluble fiber increasingly in your diet.
6. Get them from the vegetables instead of grains
The best strategy is to get most (if not all) of your daily fiber requirements from vegetables instead of grains. Also, it is best to know the foods which contain both soluble and insoluble fibers so that you can have a healthy diet. The best sources for such foods are beans, cauliflower, peas, green beans, chia seeds, almonds, berries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, onions, and sweet potatoes.
7. Important to maintain internal balance
Precise fiber amount in your system can be crucial in maintaining the internal body clock balance by cleaning your system, acting as natural laxatives.
However, you need to remember a very vital precondition of balance. Do not include the fibers in excess because they also consist of certain anti-nutrients such as lectins and gliadin.
In excess, these may cause intestinal infection instead of healing it. In extreme cases, they may also have serious effects like the leaky gut syndrome (intestinal permeability). Glutinous proteins called prolamines are very binding and the body finds it difficult to metabolize these. Keep it in control. 20/30 gm of fiber should be sufficient daily.