10/08/2023
Are you getting enough fiber into your diet?
You need fiber to keep healthy from top to bottom, as well as to provide food for the healthy bacteria that work within you to promote health.
Today, the average American eats about 8 grams of fiber a day. But the average hunter and gatherers ate 100 grams from all manner of roots, berries, leaves, and plant foods. And the fiber is what helped those ancestors of ours stay healthy. Just take a look at all the good things that fiber can do for your body.
In fact, fiber can actually prevent obesity and all the chronic diseases of aging. This is because fiber slows the rate at which food enters your bloodstream and increases the speed at which food exits your body through the digestive tract. That keeps your blood sugar and cholesterol in ideal balance — and quickly eliminates toxins from your gut and reduces your appetite.
You should shoot to get 30 to 50 grams of fiber into your diet every day. The type of fiber you choose is important, too.
You’ll find soluble fiber in fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and most whole grains. The bacteria in your gut metabolize the soluble fiber in these foods, and that’s when the benefits start.
Soluble fiber can help lower cholesterol, blood sugar, and insulin, prevent cancer, balance hormone levels, remove excess estrogen and reduce the risk of breast cancer, make vitamins and minerals, provide food for the colon cells, and more. So it’s easy to see just how crucial soluble fiber is to good health!