You’ve probably heard that fiber is an essential part of a healthy diet. But if you’re like most people, you’re not consuming nearly enough of this vital carbohydrate.
One of the main reasons: Processed foods.
“We’re eating more processed foods, and processed foods often take out the fiber,” says Dr. Lawrence Cheskin, a professor of nutrition and food sciences at George Mason University and an adjunct professor in the department of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
That’s unfortunate because dietary fiber provides a whole host of specific health benefits.
What Is Dietary Fiber?
“Fiber is by definition indigestible plant material,” explains Dr. David Katz, a preventive medicine specialist, past president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and co-author of “How to Eat.” “Dietary fiber is not digested and, therefore, neither absorbed nor stored in the body.”
There are two types of fiber, both of which are beneficial to human health:
— Soluble fiber, which dissolves in water and forms a gel-like substance in the stomach, slows digestion. It also can help control your blood sugar and decrease blood cholesterol levels. Soluble fibers include guar gum, psyllium, pectin and beta-glucan, Katz notes. You’ll find soluble fiber in citrus fruits, apples, oats, barley, beans, peas, lentils, carrots and broccoli.
— Insoluble fiber, which doesn’t dissolve in water, reduces transit time in the gastrointestinal tract and increases bulk in stools, which can help keep you regular. Noteworthy types of insoluble fiber include lignins, cellulose and hemicellulose. Good food sources of insoluble fiber include whole grains, oat bran, wheat bran, nuts and seeds, potatoes, green beans, zucchini and cauliflower.
[SEE: Complex vs. Simple Carbohydrates: What’s the Difference?]
What Are the Best High-Fiber Foods?
Some of the best high-fiber foods include:
— Beans and legumes, such as lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans.
— Nuts and seeds.
— Avocado.
— Broccoli, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables.
— Berries, apples and other whole fruits with the skin left on.
— Carrots, beets, sweet potatoes and other root vegetables.
— Quinoa, oatmeal, barley, brown rice and other whole grains.
How Much Fiber Do You Need?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 advise women to consume 22 to 28 grams of fiber per day and men to have 28 to 34 grams per day, depending on their age.
But the reality is 90% to 97% of adults in the U.S. aren’t hitting these targets for dietary fiber. In fact, most people in the U.S. consume only half the amount of recommended fiber per day.
Fiber goals
What Are the Benefits of a High-Fiber Diet?
Eating a fiber-rich diet on a regular basis offers a range of health benefits, including:
Regulates digestion and bowel movement
As a starting point, consuming a high-fiber diet is good for your digestion and bowel function. Because it adds bulk to stools, fiber reduces the risk of constipation and diarrhea, Cheskin says.
“Fiber is like a freight train that moves through the GI tract and keeps things moving,” says Joan Salge Blake, a professor of nutrition at Boston University.
Supports weight loss and management
In addition, consuming plenty of fiber can help with weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Research has found that among various dietary adjustments people made, increasing dietary fiber intake and decreasing total and saturated fat intake best predicted weight loss among people at high risk for Type 2 diabetes after a year.
One type of high-fiber diet is the F-Factor diet, a high-fiber, high-protein diet that encourages high-fiber carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables and whole grains. It also recommends consumption of lean proteins and healthy fats and discourages consumption of processed foods, refined grains and added sugars and sweets. Depending on what phase of the diet you’re following, it can include upwards of 35 to 60 grams of fiber per day. The idea is that you’ll feel fuller with all that fiber, and that can help you lose weight because you’ll end up consuming fewer calories over the course of the day.
Manages hunger
Because fiber slows down digestion of food, it can help you feel fuller longer, which is great if you’re trying to manage your weight.
“People who eat high-fiber diets tend to eat less — fiber lowers the energy density because it increases the volume of food, which makes you feel more full,” Cheskin explains. “It helps with satiety.”
Lowers heart disease risk
A high-fiber diet is associated with improved blood lipid levels. Soluble fiber helps lower LDL (or low-density lipoprotein, the so-called “bad” cholesterol), which reduces the risk of heart disease.
Supports gut health
Dietary fiber is also beneficial for gut health. For one, it supports a diverse gut microbiome — the community of microbes, including bacteria, that naturally live in the GI tract. Basically, many forms of fiber — including beta-glucans (in oats and barley) and resistant starch (in unripe bananas and potatoes) — act as prebiotics, which are essentially food for healthy bacteria (probiotics) in the gut, Salge Blake explains.
This is significant because a healthy gut microbiome helps produce anti-inflammatory effects throughout the body. This is another route through which a high-fiber diet may improve cardiovascular health and metabolic health, including blood sugar regulation, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol levels, according to experts.
[READ: How to Eat Like the Mediterranean Diet With Foods From Other Cuisines.]
Improves mental health
By improving the health of the gut microbiome, consuming plenty of dietary fiber also could protect your mental health. A study in a 2020 issue of the journal Maturitas found that postmenopausal women with a higher intake of dietary fiber had a greater mental health quality of life — including less anxiety and depression — than those with a lower intake.
Similarly, a study in a 2021 issue of Frontiers in Psychiatry found that adults with the highest dietary fiber intake had a 33% lower risk of anxiety and a 29% lower risk of experiencing high psychological distress than those with the lowest intake of fiber.
Reduces cancer risk
Consuming plenty of fiber may reduce your risk of developing certain forms of cancer, particularly colorectal and breast cancers.
In a 2020 study, researchers noted that high fiber consumption has been shown to reduce breast cancer risk by controlling blood glucose levels, improving insulin sensitivity and increasing levels of sex hormone-binding globulin, which regulates and reduces estrogen levels in the body. This is critical because estrogen can promote cancer cell growth in certain types of breast cancers, specifically estrogen receptor-positive cancers.
In addition, because fiber helps people maintain a healthy weight, it reduces the risk of obesity, which is associated with at least 13 types of cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Reduces mortality risk
If you need more reason to love fiber, it’s a key ingredient to living a long, healthy life. In fact, research has found that people with a consistently high-fiber intake have a lower risk of dying prematurely from any cause.
[READ: How to Choose a Fiber Supplement.]
Best Ways to Increase Your Fiber Intake
Are you ready to reap the health benefits of eating more fiber? Here are a few strategies for easing into a high-fiber diet:
Start slow
As you ramp up your fiber intake, the key is to do it gradually. Eating too much too quickly can cause digestive distress, such as cramps, gas and constipation. Start with one change at a time — such as switching from white bread to whole-wheat bread or from white rice to brown rice — and build up from there as your body adjusts to having more fiber.
“Slow and steady is the name of the game here because your body needs to get used to it,” Salge Blake says. “Add fruits and vegetables throughout the day rather than having a boatload at one meal.”
Here are some ideas for how to increase your fiber intake at every meal:
— Breakfast: Have a bowl of high-fiber cereal topped with berries or an orange instead of juice or a veggie omelet (with chopped bell pepper, mushrooms and spinach) with whole-wheat toast.
— Lunch: Have a small salad or vegetable soup with a sandwich. Add beans and/or nuts and seeds to a meal-size salad.
— Snacks: Have carrot sticks, bell pepper spears or other veggies with hummus. Eat a handful of almonds or other nuts with an apple or pear.
— Dinner: Include at least one veggie (such as broccoli or asparagus) with fish or chicken, served with a side of brown rice or quinoa instead of white rice or pasta. Choose fruit-based desserts, such as berries topped with yogurt or frozen fruit dusted with cocoa powder.
Other meal tips to increase your fiber:
— Instead of peeling endlessly, incorporate the skin into mashed potatoes. It’s delicious and adds a big fiber punch.
— Try new grains, such as quinoa, barley, rolled oats and farro.
— Replace all-purpose flour with whole-grain flour in some recipes.
— Look for breads and cereals with “whole wheat” or “whole grain” listed as the first ingredient.
— Mix flaxseeds into baked goods or sprinkle on toast, salads and other dishes.
— Add cooked beans into soups or pureed into dips. You can even add mashed black beans to brownies to sneak some extra fiber into a delicious package.
Drink lots of water
In addition to easing more fiber into your daily consumption, it’s important to drink plenty of fluids to help it pass through you. Water is key to good digestion, but this vital drink plays an even greater role when you up your fiber intake. Dietary fiber absorbs water and adds bulk to your stool, allowing it to pass through you more smoothly.
Consider fiber supplements
You can also increase your fiber intake with a fiber supplement, such as a psyllium husk, which is available in powder or pill form.
“This can be especially helpful when you’re trying to control your weight because fiber supplements have no calories,” Cheskin says.
However, they shouldn’t be used as a substitute for high-fiber foods, which contain lots of vitamins, minerals and health-promoting phytochemicals.
Bottom Line
Getting a sufficient amount of fiber from whole foods on a regular basis comes with a lot of health benefits.
“By itself, fiber doesn’t seem very glamorous, but the foods that contain fiber — fruits, vegetables and whole grains — are delicious,” Salge Blake says. “For something that’s not absorbed by the body, fiber has a heckuva lot of benefits for your body. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving.”
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What Is a High-Fiber Diet? originally appeared on usnews.com
