Roughing It - How adding fiber to your diet will help prevent heart disease & diabetes and prevent most cancers.
Heart disease is a critical health issue for Americans. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death and a major cause of disability in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Although commonly mistaken as a disease affecting mostly men and the elderly, heart disease is also a serious health risk for women of all ages. In fact, one in every three women will die from heart disease, compared to one in 30 who will die from breast cancer.
The good news is that heart disease is largely preventable through positive lifestyle changes. Research shows that a diet rich in fiber reduces the incidence of risk factors for heart disease.
What is Dietary Fiber?
Dietary fiber describes the part of plant foods that your body can’t digest. Fiber is present in all plants that are eaten for food, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Fiber can be divided into two types: soluble and insoluble. These types of fiber have different effects on glucose metabolism—which is the rate at which your body processes sugar
Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber dissolves in water, forming a gel in the intestines. The beneficial effects of soluble fibers are reduced glucose and insulin responses because it slows the effect of carbohydrate absorption and digestion.
Insoluble Fiber
Insoluble fiber doesn’t dissolve in water and increases the movement of material through your digestive tract allowing less time for carbohydrates to be absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, thus relieving insulin demand.
How Much Fiber?
The average American’s daily intake of fiber is about 5 to 14 grams per day. However, recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine are that adults consume 21 – 30 grams or dietary fiber per day, depending on age and gender.
Fiber and Heart Disease
High intake of dietary fiber has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer in a number of large studies that followed people for many years. These early nutrition research findings have been borne out by countless subsequent studies. One recent study found that every additional 10 grams of fiber consumed on a daily basis cuts the risk of coronary heart disease death by 27 percent.
In a Harvard study of over 40,000 male health professionals, researchers found that a high total dietary fiber intake was linked to a 40 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease, compared to a low fiber intake. A related Harvard study of female nurses produced quite similar findings.
Another study of over 31,000 California Seventh-day Adventists found a 44 percent reduced risk of nonfatal coronary heart disease and an 11 percent reduced risk of fatal coronary heart disease for those who consumed more fiber in their diets. One minor change in their diets provided a protective effect that could save their lives.
Another strong predictor of heart disease is abnormal blood cholesterol levels. Soluble fiber reduces the absorption of cholesterol in your intestines by binding with bile (which contains cholesterol) and dietary cholesterol so that the body excretes it.
While atherosclerotic heart disease (the process of progressive thickening and hardening of the walls of arteries from fats and cholesterol deposits on their inner lining) is the most prevalent cause of death, it is perhaps the most modifiable one.
Fiber and Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. Diabetes leads to heart disease and stroke. It’s characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. It tends to develop when the body can no longer produce enough of the hormone insulin to lower blood sugar to normal levels or cannot properly use the insulin that it does produce.
Research has shown that consuming fiber can help prevent this form of diabetes. Dietary fiber slows the absorption of food so that blood sugar does not rise as rapidly, while also reducing insulin secretion. This was demonstrated in a study published in 2004 in which a high fiber intake led to improved glycemic control, along with reduction of blood pressure and serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels .
A German clinical trial reported that eating a fiber-rich diet for only three days improved insulin sensitivity in overweight and obese women by 8 percent. If a diet intervention this small can have that great of an impact, you can imagine what years of following a high-fiber diet would do.
The good news for those with diabetes is that increasing your fiber now can also prevent long-term complications from diabetes. Soluble fiber has been found to produce significant reductions in blood sugar. In clinical intervention trials ranging from two to 17 weeks, consumption of fiber was shown to decrease insulin requirements in people with type 2 diabetes. If you've ever had to inject yourself with insulin, you can appreciate how much easier and less painful it would be to increase your fiber intake to avoid the need for insulin injections.
Fiber for Weight Control and Fat Loss
One of the most alarming health concerns of the last decade is explosive growth in the number of people—especially younger people—who are overweight or obese.
A 1997 study investigated the effects of one week of supplementation with guar gum (a water-soluble fiber found in the Biosphere Fiber of Bios Life) on hunger and satiety, as well as calorie intake, in obese test subjects. Adding fiber to the diet decreased food intake, and subjects on a reduced-calorie diet reported diminished hunger after supplementing with fiber. Thus, fiber may assist in weight-management programs by promoting a feeling of fullness, decreasing hunger, and promoting adherence to a reduced-calorie diet.
Another study confirmed these effects. When overweight individuals added 14 grams of fiber daily to their otherwise unrestricted diet, they consumed 10 percent fewer calories. This led to an average of 4.2 pounds of weight loss in just under four months.
These factors are especially important in treating obesity in children, according to the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, which notes that modern nutritional research indicates an important role for fiber in regulating body weight.
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