Live Healthy Fit

In our diets filled with fast food and sweetened snacks, it is difficult to find foods that are in fact good for you. Assuming you want to be healthier and feel better you should strive to add fiber to your diet.

Fiber is a substance created by plants that we cannot digest. So why would we want to consume something we cannot digest? Insoluble fiber dissolves in water and provides your food with a thicker consistency. This causes you to absorb sugar into your blood stream more slowly. Soluble fiber absorbs water, but does not dissolve it. This makes your stool moist and assists in cleaning out the digestive tract.

The most important benefit of eating high fiber foods is that it can assist in quieting or even preventing certain diseases. People diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, suffer from chronic abdominal pain, alongside other symptoms such as constipation or diarrhoea. High fiber foods can relieve these symptoms with no use of prescription drugs. Because fiber clears unwanted stuff out of your colon, it helps lessen the risk of colon cancer. If this is not enough of a benefit, a high fiber diet has also been suggested for persons who have high cholesterol because it has been revealed to lower overall cholesterol levels.

These days, people have a bunch more processed and refined sugars in their diet than the body was intended to handle. When we consume simple sugars, our insulin response is set-off causing our blood sugar levels to fall. This can lead to weight gain because our body stores the sugars as fats. Fiber slows the absorption of sugar into the body and lowers the insulin response, keeping our blood sugar at practical levels instead of bouncing up and down throughout the day. High fiber foods are suggested for people with hypoglycaemia and diabetes to help stabilise blood sugar levels. If it can assist in treating their conditions, imagine what it can do for you.

In addition to making us store fat, our insulin response leaves us feeling worn out, tired, and wanting an extra sugar pick me up. The more sugar we have, the lower our blood sugar drops, and the quicker we get hungry again. Fiber is a good way to end this cycle. It keeps us feeling fuller longer, so we finish up eating a smaller amount. In addition, what we consume is just a bit healthier.

So why not put in a little additional fiber to your diet? It is not as difficult as it sounds. You can find high fiber foods that taste fantastic and are good for you. Some examples are: fruits (pears, apples, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, raisins, dried peaches, figs, and apricots), grains (whole grain pasta and bread, bran cereal, and oatmeal), legumes (black, lima, baked beans, lentils, and assorted nuts), and vegetables (carrots, baked potatoes, artichokes, peas, turnip greens, and Brussels sprouts). Just put in a few of these foods in your diet and you will be healthier and feeling super very soon. Bon appetit!