High Fiber Diet

Benefits of a High Fiber Diet

The health benefits of a high fiber diet, consumed on a regular basis and reaching recommended amounts (below), are now fairly well-defined. There are some additional benefits in the early research stage with the prebiotic soluble fibers. What is now known regarding a high fiber diet include:

Bowel Regularity

A high fiber diet promotes regularity with a softer, bulkier and regular stool pattern. This decreases the chance of hemorrhoids, diverticulosis and perhaps colon cancer.

Cholesterol and Reduced Triglycerides

The soluble fibers are the ones that will reduce cholesterol levels when used on a regular basis. Psyllium husk and prebiotic soluble fiber will also reduce cholesterol. They may also reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease. Oats, flax seeds and legumes or beans are the recommended fibers.

Colon Polyps and Cancer

It is still not certain if a high fiber diet helps prevent colon cancer. Considerable research suggests that this may occur. Certainly it makes sense to increase regularity and so speed the movement of cancer causing carcinogens through the bowel. In addition, reducing a heavy meat diet reduces the bile flow from the liver in a favorable way. This, too, reduces the amount of carcinogens that reach and are manufactured in the colon. Finally, a high fiber diet, including prebiotic soluble fiber, increases the integrity and health of the wall of the colon. The risk of cancer may be reduced.

Colon Wall Integrity

A high fiber diet changes the bacterial makeup of the colon to a more favorable balance. For instance, it is known that those people with obesity, diabetes type 2 and inflammatory bowel disease have a predominance of bad bacteria in the colon. This, in turn, may render the bowel wall weak and allow bacteria and, indeed, even toxins to seep through. A high fiber diet with a modest reduction in animal and meat products may return the bacterial makeup to a more positive balance. This, in particular, has been seen when the soluble fiber prebiotics are added to the diet.

Blood Sugar

Soluble fiber such as in legumes (beans), oats and in prebiotic fibers slows the absorption of blood sugar and so helps regulate the sugar in the blood. Insoluble fiber on a regular basis is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Weight Loss

High fiber diets are more filling and give a sense of fullness sooner than an animal and meat based diet does. In addition, the soluble prebiotic fibers have been shown to turn off the hunger hormones and to increase the hormones that give a sense of fullness. Those hormones are made in the wall of the gut. New medical research has shown that the bacterial makeup in the colon in overweight people is abnormal to the extent that they manufacture and absorb almost twice the number of calories as do normals. Prebiotic fibers (below) will help change this bacterial balance in a favorable way.

Bacteria and the Function of the Colon

The colon finishes the digestive process. Hopefully, the waste products move through in a nice regular manner. Insoluble fibers help this process by retaining water and so producing a bulkier, softer stool, which is easy to pass.

The additional role of the colon is to provide a home for an enormous number of micro-organisms, mostly bacteria. Recent research has shown that there are over 1,000 species of bacteria with a total bacterial count ten times the number of cells in the body. These bacteria play a major role in keeping the colon wall itself healthy. In addition, these good bacteria produce a very strong immune system for the body. They significantly increase calcium absorption and bone density. They provide many other documented benefits. It is the soluble fibers in the diet that are so effective in stimulating the growth of good colon bacteria.