Wednesday, March 13, 2013

IMPORTANCE OF DIETARY FIBER


Dietary fiber comes from plant foods and falls into two main categories: digestible and non-digestible.
Non-digestible: Sometimes called insoluble fiber, comes in the form of cellulose, which makes up the cell walls of plant foods. Cellulose absorbs water, but doesn't dissolve in it. Non-digestible fiber is found in wheat bran, nuts, the skin of vegetables and fruits, crunchy vegetables such as collards and lettuce.
Digestible fiber (sometimes called soluble fiber) comes from the various gums, pectin  lignans, and other natural substances found in plant foods. Although it's never actually digested like non-digestible fiber, it cannot be broken down by your digestive system and simply passes through you, digestible fiber dissolves in water to form a soft gel in your intestines. Good sources of digestible fiber include beans, oatmeal, oat bran, apples and pears.
Most plants foods contain at least some of both forms of fiber. The more fiber a food contains, the more likely it is to fill you up quickly and keep you feeling full longer. High carbohydrate, low fiber foods - brownies, for example don't really satisfy your hunger for long. The sugar from these foods enters your bloodstream almost instantly, giving you a temporary feeling of satiety that quickly disappears as your blood sugar drops. You can eat five brownies in a row and still end up ravenously hungry, shaky and mentally foggy - several hours later.
But what if you ate a protein and fat snack along with some fiber - a stick of celery stuffed with cream cheese, for instance? You'd be getting about 2 grams of protein and about 10 grams of dietary fat from the cream cheese, along with about 1 gram of fiber. This crunchy easy to make snack will fill you up without sending your blood sugar up and down, in fact, it will help stabilize your blood sugar so you won't be hungry or cranky later.
High fiber vegetables are; broccoli, cabbage, and zucchini.

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