You’ve probably heard lots of nutritionists, health professionals and even doctors tell you the benefits of eating a high fiber diet. Sometimes this nutrient can be misunderstood or misguided when it comes to a high fiber diet, but overall it has a lot of benefits that can keep our bodies feeling energized and full. Keep reading to find out why.
Fiber comes from the structure of plants and helps build molecules. Even though fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and even carbohydrates, our bodies don’t add any carbohydrates to our diet and they contain zero calories. There are two types of fiber, both play an important role in our health. There is soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber helps you feel full longer because it takes longer to empty your stomach. This does help with weight loss, and insoluble fiber helps to digest a lot faster thus allowing you to digest faster. Don’t stress about which one you are or are not getting just eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
Benefits of Eating High Fiber Diet
How much fiber you intake has everything to do with your body weight and fat. The more fiber you intake the better you are able to maintain your body weight. Fiber plays a major role in weight loss because it helps you to feel fuller longer, which helps prevent overeating or snacking too much. Some other benefits of eating a high fiber diet are it helps to prevent heart disease, controls your blood sugar levels better, and prevents diseases of the digestive tract.
The one important thing to remember about fiber is that like most foods, not all fiber is created equal. Which means, if you're trying to get the right amount of fiber but eating lots of packaged or processed foods, it’s not going to be sufficient for your body. Just remember to eat REAL whole foods, avoid sugar and make your meals from scratch to incorporate all the colors of the rainbow into your diet. IF you are doing this, most likely you are getting enough fiber intake and can reap all the benefits that fiber has to offer us!
Some of the top food that contains the most fiber are:
Lentils: 1 cup=15.6 grams
Mung Bean:1 cup=15 grams
Black Beans: 1 cup+15 grams
Coconut Flour:¼ cup=10 grams
Acorn Squash:1 cup=9 grams
Raspberries:1 cup=8 grams
Blackberries:1 cup=7.6 grams