Fiber in Your Diet

Why Do I Need To Worry About Fiber In My Diet?
Presented to you by: Stacie Marone, MPH, RD, LDN –Somers Point Branch
Home Solutions Infusion Therapy

Fiber is an important component of everyone’s diet.  Fiber is not a vitamin or a mineral but a type of carbohydrate that your body doesn’t digest but needs it just the same.  Adequate intake of fiber can help with many health issues:

Controls blood sugars.  Consuming fiber in your diet helps your body regulate the absorption of sugar.  Fiber can also help improve blood sugar levels which may prevent the development of Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Type II DM.  For those with Type II DM, fiber has shown to help improve blood sugar control and can potentially reduce your dependence on insulin.

Lowers cholesterol levels.  Some studies have shown that eating 10-25 grams of fiber a day can reduce your cholesterol by 18%.  Fiber has been shown to reduce the amount of cholesterol your body absorbs by removing it from your body.

Help reach a healthy weight.  When you eat foods high in fiber your body will feel fuller, longer preventing excess caloric intake.

Reduce your risk of diseases and cancer.  Consuming adequate amounts of fiber each day has shown to help lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation, common contributors to heart disease.  Further, increasing your intake of fiber to the recommended levels has a strong correlation with decreasing your risk of colon cancer.

On average, females need about 25 grams of fiber each day, and males need 38 grams.  The best sources of fiber include whole fruits and vegetables, whole grain products and beans.

Tips To Add More Fiber To Your Diet:

1. Choose whole pieces of fruit over fruit juice.
2. Instead of white bread buy wheat bread with whole-wheat flour as the main ingredient.
3. Add beans to your salad, sandwich or soups.
4. Try a bowl of oatmeal instead of cereal.
5. Switch out a granola bar for popcorn as an afternoon snack.

The fiber content of food can be located on the package’s food label.  This is the easiest way to see if you are choosing fiber-rich foods is to look at the “dietary fiber” content under the Total Carbohydrate section.