The National Academy of Medicine defines fiber as:

1) dietary fibers (nondigestible carbohydrates and lignans) that occur naturally in plants, and

2) functional fibers that are extracted from plants or synthetically made and are nondigestible with a beneficial health effect in humans.

 

The Merriam-Webster's definition that relates to today's topic says:

d : mostly indigestible material in food (such as legumes, whole grains, and vegetables) that stimulates the intestine to peristalsis and promotes elimination of waste from the large intestine : BULK, ROUGHAGEdietary fiber

 

What this tells me, fiber is very important and necessary.  It plays a very important part by supporting your body and immune system to stay strong and healthy.  It does this by keeping your gut happy and healthy as it feeds your millions of gut biome what they need to do their job.  Possibly even help to create an anti-inflammatory benefit that may allay chronic inflammation to help lower the risk of developing some health conditions.

 

It doesn't stop there either, fiber also helps to regulate your blood sugars and even said that it may help lower blood cholesterol.  Besides that, it does a great job moving the food you eat through you digestive system, through fluid absorption and bulking your stool, encouraging regularity and helping to keep constipation away. 

 

Something else that is important to know, there are two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble.

 

The soluble fiber absorbs and dissolves in water.  This brings water into your colon and softens your stool so it will easily pass through for regular bowel movements.

 

The insoluble fiber does not dissolve.  It becomes like gentle scrub brushes helping to move waste through and keeping your intestinal tract clear of stool build up.

 

Both are extremely important as they work together with their very different jobs.  Neither will out shine the other because of this.  So, please don't focus one over the other, you most definitely need both.

 

Being we need to have both types of fiber, we also need to know how much to have.  What has been recommended for an adult is at least 25-35 grams of fiber daily.  I don't know if that amount seems high or low to you, but it would be interesting to know where you are in your daily intake.  It is said that the average person probably only has about 15 grams of fiber a day.  Where do you think you are with this? 

 

Take a guess and let me know:  Share here  

 

Now that we are aware of the importance of fiber and how much, I am sure you are curious, and asking, where do I get this fiber?  Well, believe it or not, you can get fiber through eating whole foods, and these foods are all from plants.    

 

Soluble fiber comes from foods such a oatmeal, seeds, nuts and beans.   Insoluble fiber comes from foods such as quinoa, kale, nuts and fruit with edible skin.  These are not exhaustible lists but a starting point.  You may have even notice that there are cross overs from each of these lists and even more so as you start looking into this further.

 

For continued study, here are a few article links.  They will give you more in depth information on this topic as well as lists of the top soluble and insoluble fiber foods.   

 

 

 

 

You will even see some how much fiber those foods have to help you see how close you came with your fiber intake guess.  I look forward to hearing how close you were.

 

Love and blessings,