How High Fiber Foods Can Help You Lose Weight and Feel Great: We often ignore the food that can not only reduce diabetes, blood sugar, and blood pressure but also resolve constipation or digestive issues like Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It can also improve our immune system and reduce weight. So many things can only be done by one food type and that is high fiber foods.
Today, we will discuss high fiber foods and their importance, where you can get them from, how much fiber you should add in a day, and more.
All the food that nature had made, was always made with fiber. But we humans, to make things easy, fast life, convenience and luxury, processed and ultra-processed food and removed fiber in food.
Today we prefer eating only refined foods. That is why so many diseases and obesity have increased in recent days. But what is fiber? Fiber is a part of carbohydrates, which is divided into three parts.
The first is starch, the second is sugar and the third is fiber. Starch and sugar have a lot of calories and nutrition is very low. But fiber is such a thing that it does not digest itself, it does not have any absorption in the body. But interestingly, it moves in our entire gastrointestinal tract, that too slowly. Although it does not digest itself, it can completely transform our digestive system and resolve issues.
5 Importance of High Fiber in Diet
1. It has zero calories- High fiber foods do not contain any calories and it is full of nutrients. When you have more weight, obesity, and extra fat in the body, it will help to reduce it. Because whenever you eat high-fiber food, it will keep your stomach full.
2. Keeps your Tummy Full- Just for example when you eat an apple and chocolate, after eating an apple, your stomach is immediately full. But after eating chocolate, you get hungry quickly. Because of the high fiber content in the apple, it occupies more space in your stomach. Because of this, you will get help in reducing weight because the satiety level increases.
3. Helps to avoid overeating. This means that your food from the stomach to the small intestine, which has fiber in it, passes slowly, it will not happen quickly. This means that you get satisfaction after eating, there is no overeating, but at the same time, you will not feel hungry for a long time.
So if your goal is to lose weight properly, to reduce fat, then you will have to eat high fiber foods, because it will not keep you hungry for a long time.
4, It reduces blood sugar levels- In case you are diabetic or a pre-diabetic and want to manage your blood sugar level, then eat fiber. Because of this, your food releases sugar slowly in the blood, and the sugar spike will never come. When you eat refined things like an example of chocolate, the more refined things you eat, the faster the blood sugar spikes and you get hungry as soon as possible. Eating fiber will manage blood sugar levels.
5. Help for Digestion- Fiber works as teeth of your stomach and small intestine. We have teeth in our mouth, which helps us digest. Our food starts digesting well from here through chewing. But when we put food in our stomach without chewing, it has to do a lot of overwork, but it has not been given any teeth. Now imagine that if you eat quickly and put a big chunk in your stomach, and then do not put fiber, then that food remains lying and requires a lot of digestion power.
It takes a lot of time to digest it properly or absorb it. But when you eat fiber, it works as a broom in your body, which will help to clean the garbage. If you have constipation or digestive issues, then fiber can work as a blessing for you.
How Much Fiber You Should Consume Per Day
If you are a female, then according to the Institute of Medicine, you should consume 25 grams of fiber in a day. If you are a male, then you should consume 38 grams of fiber in a day.
Types of High Fiber Foods
There are two types of Fiber-One is soluble and the other is insoluble. Soluble fiber is the one that dissolves in water. And it can help to balance your cholesterol and diabetes blood sugar. What is soluble fiber present in? Peas, beans like kidney beans, chickpeas, barley, oat bran, chia seeds, and maximum fruits and vegetables available in it.
Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water, but it soaks the water and forms a gel-like structure. Imagine that there is a dry sponge with which you clean the utensils. If you put water on it, it expands a little. If that sponge is passed in your GI tract, how can it clean the garbage? Similarly, insoluble fiber, especially if you have constipation, IBS, or any digestive disorder, will help to clean the garbage and keep your GI tract clean.
Sources of High Fiber Foods
Corn, nuts, seeds, or between flax seeds. All the fruits and vegetables are present in its skin, like apples and potatoes. If possible, eat with the skin.
Along with that, you have to add nuts and seeds. Whole grains like jowar, bajra, ragi, corn, oats, quinoa, rajgira, or along with that, lentils and pulses like different types of lentils, or whole grains or pulses like rajma, chana, chole, moong.
No Fiber Food List
If you take 3 or 5 meals throughout the day, you must analyze how much food you have that is fiber-free. The top foods that people take and don’t have fiber are sugar, soft drinks, tea, coffee, chocolate, biscuits, namkeen, bread, pizza, burger, or pasta.
Conclusion
Do follow and include high-fiber food as mentioned above, because as long as you depend on medicines and doctor’s visits, it is a short-term solution. In the long term, you will have to take responsibility for your health and that can be done through proper food habits.
Also read, 7 Health Benefits of Iron-Rich Vegetables and Fruits
You may also like to read- What is a Balanced Diet- 5 Essential Tips to Maintain it