Why Increase the Amount of Fiber in Your Diet?

So what are the benefits of a high-fiber diet? Let’s take a look at some of the more common ones.

Lose Weight:-
Let’s start with this one since it’s on a lot of people’s minds. If you do a search online, you’ll find any number of people pushing high-fiber eating as a way to lose weight. And it does work. We’ll get into more details in the next section, but the short explanation is that by eating more fiber, you’ll feel more full and want to eat fewer calories. And the bottom line in losing weight is to burn more calories than you eat.

Reduce the Rick of Certain Cancers:-
A major benefit for everyone is the role that fiber has been shown to have in reducing cancer. I already mentioned the studies that showed people who eat a high-fiber diet have less colon cancer. It appears there are a number of benefits to colon health from fiber. First, it helps to push stools through the colon more quickly, which contributes to overall colon health. Water-soluble fiber also encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the colon. And finally, it helps to bind potential carcinogens and excrete them from the body. The bottom line is that the people who eat a high-fiber diet have been shown to have a 40 percent reduction in the risk of colon cancer.

But colon cancer isn’t the only cancer that fiber can reduce. Studies done in England have revealed not only that women who eat a high-fiber diet are less likely to develop breast cancer, but also that women who already had breast cancer had a longer life expectancy on a high-fiber diet. And finally, studies have shown a significant reduction in uterine cancer in women who ate a high-fiber diet.

Help the Heart and Circulatory System:-
Fiber has also had positive effects in fighting heart disease, the number-one killer of both men and women in the United States. Primarily, getting to and staying at a desirable weight reduces one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease. But fiber also contributes in other more active ways. First of all, it helps to reduce cholesterol levels. It does this in several ways. One is by encouraging the production of propionic acid in the intestines, which inhibits the production of cholesterol. Secondly, it removes bile acids from the intestines. In order to make more bile acids, the liver requires cholesterol, which it removes from the bloodstream. The bottom line … high-fiber diets have reduced the bad kind of cholesterol, LDL, by 10 to 15 percent.

Help Control Blood Pressure:-
Another way that fiber contributes to heart and overall health is by reducing high blood pressure. High-fiber diets have been shown to reduce blood pressure by three to seven points, enough to reduce the risk of heart disease by up to 9 percent. Cholesterol reduction contributes to lower blood pressure. Fiber also tends to widen the arteries, reducing the risk of blockage.

Strengthen the Immune System:-
Fiber can help to keep you healthy by strengthening your immune system. Other diets rely on drastic reductions of food intake. This often has the effect of reducing the number and health of white blood cells. A high-fiber diet, on the other hand, has the opposite effect, strengthening the white blood cells. It also promotes health by increasing beneficial bacteria in the intestines.

Help Fight Diabetes:-
Finally, a high-fiber diet can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Reducing your weight is again a positive thing for reducing the risk of diabetes; but it also helps in other ways. It slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Research has found that a high-fiber meal can reduce blood sugar levels by as much as 28 percent. It also has been proven to improve insulin sensitivity, which better enables the body to process sugar.

This Tip For Health was published in '500 HIGH-FIBER RECIPES by "DICK LOGUE" - p9 To p16'