Your Weight-Loss Partner: Fiber Helps You Drop Pounds And Stay Healthy
Taste for Life  - 1/1/2005
By: Linda Odum

In this world of low carb, high protein dieting, it's easy to shortchange yourself on an important weight-loss aid. When you cut down on carbohydrates, you may also be reducing your daily fiber intake. This not only makes your weight loss goals harder to achieve, but it may also deny you important health benefits.

Fiber's Role In Weight Loss

Hunger is the enemy of anyone trying to shed pounds. It's hard to remind yourself how good you'll look and feel after you lose weight when your stomach is trying to convince you otherwise. High fiber foods can help hold off hunger and food cravings.

The basic formula for losing weight is to eat fewer calories than your body requires, so you burn fat to make up the deficit. Foods low in fiber-desserts and a small portion. By contrast, high fiber foods-fruits, vegetables, and whole grains-allow you to eat larger portions for fewer calories. Equally important, these foods help you feel full longer.

For those already at a healthy weight, research suggests that fiber may help you stay that way. Investigators from the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who consumed fiber in the form of whole grains had a 49 percent lower risk of major weight gain over a 12-year period than women who primarily consumed refined carbohydrates. A new study shows similar results for men.

Other benefits? Fiber slows down the absorption of foods, making you feel fuller longer,� says Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D, C.N.S, author of The Fat Flush Plan. “Without adequate fiber, up to 90 percent of cholesterol and bile acids will be reabsorbed and recirculated to the liver. This taxes your liver and reduces its fat-burning abilities. A sluggish, overworked live does a poor job metabolizing fat.

Fiber Fights Diabetes

During digestion, carbohydrates break down into sugar (or glucose), which enters the bloodstream. As blood glucose levels increase, the body produces insulin to help convert glucose into energy, lowering blood sugar to a normal level. These blood sugar spikes cause problems for anyone with diabetes (whose body does not produce enough insulin) or who is insulin resistant (where both blood sugar and blood insulin remain at high levels). High blood sugar levels can also cause the body to produce and store excess fat.

Fiber helps slow down carbohydrate digestion. This means glucose enters the bloodstream more slowly, discouraging fat production and lowering a person's risk of diabetes and insulin resistance. One study suggests that psyllium is useful both for metabolic control and lowering the risk of coronary disease among people with Type 2 diabetes.

Fiber’s Added Benefits

A common side effect of low carb diets is constipation. On low carbohydrate diets people are not eliminating properly, says Dr. Gittleman.  That concerns me more than anything else because we know that fiber reduces the time certain {toxic} substances spend in the intestines.

Ideally, it should take the food you eat 12 to 18 hours to pass through the digestive system. For many Americans, it takes 72 hours or longer for this process to occur. This longer transit time allows pathogens to grow in the intestines and toxins to be absorbed from the intestines rather than being eliminated quickly.

Fiber helps keep waste transit times at an optimum level. This not only prevents constipation but also suggests that fiber intake helps prevent colon cancer. While medical research shows conflicting results as to fiber's cancer-prevention abilities, two studies detailed in the Lancet support the theory that a high fiber diet can reduce the risk of colon cancer-in some cases as much as 40 percent.

Along with keeping your digestive system healthy and blood sugar on an even keel, fiber may also reduce the risk of heart disease. A number of studies, including one that followed more than 40,000 male health professionals, have shown fiber lowers the risk of coronary heart disease from 10 to 40 percent. Fiber from fruits and whole grains seems to offer the greatest benefit.

Where's The Fiber?

Your goal is to consume 20 to 35 grams of dietary fiber each day. Gradually increase you intake of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains in your diet. Eat fruit and vegetables whole, rather than drinking their juice, and trade in white rice, bread, and pasta for their brown, unrefined cousins. You can also add ground flaxseed to your favorite yogurt, cereal, or bread recipe for extra fiber. Just take it slowly.

Your favorite natural products store also has fiber supplements. Psyllium comes in capsule, powder, and hush form. Like flaxseed, psyllium works well for constipation and removing toxins from the intestines. Glucomannan, guar gum, and oat and rice bran are other fiber sources. Three things to remember when taking these supplements:

Read and carefully follow the directions that come with your supplements.

Drink more water as you increase your fiber intake to move it through your system.

To avoid lessening their effectiveness, don't take a fiber supplement at the same time as medications and other supplements.

Copyright © 2005 by First Lady of Nutrition, Inc. All Rights Reserved.