What exactly is dietary fiber? What are the benefits of dietary fiber supplementation?

Dietary fiber can speed up and promote bowel movements and prevent constipation. Dietary fiber has a large surface area and a strong adsorption effect, which can interfere with the absorption of other nutrients, thus delaying the height of blood sugar after a meal and is good for blood sugar control. This is just one benefit of dietary fiber, it also has many other benefits, let's take a look!

Contents of this article

1. What exactly is dietary fiber?

2. What foods contain soluble dietary fiber?

3. What are the benefits of dietary fiber supplementation?

What exactly is dietary fiber?

Crude fiber is the old name for dietary fiber, which only includes some cellulose and lignin. The term crude fiber is used now, probably to emphasize these two insoluble dietary fibers. Dietary fiber cannot be digested by human digestive enzymes, which can reduce the effective intake of food, make the diet contain less energy and other nutrients, and maintain the feeling of fullness, which helps to control weight and lose weight. At the same time, because dietary fiber can increase the volume of stool, stimulate gastrointestinal motility, and increase the water content of stool, it can speed up and promote defecation and prevent constipation. Dietary fiber has a large surface area and a strong adsorption effect. It can interfere with the absorption of other nutrients, thereby delaying the height of postprandial blood sugar and is good for blood sugar control. At the same time, dietary fiber can interfere with the absorption of cholesterol and bile salts, which is also good for controlling blood cholesterol.

What foods contain soluble dietary fiber?

Soluble dietary fiber is a polysaccharide in carbohydrates, mainly distributed in the cell walls of plants. It has very important physiological functions, especially in maintaining the health of the digestive system and cardiovascular system. Whole grains, sweet potatoes, potatoes, broccoli, water spinach, bamboo shoots, apples, bananas.

What are the benefits of dietary fiber supplementation?

Dietary fiber is large in size, which can promote intestinal peristalsis and reduce the time that food stays in the intestine, making the water in it difficult to be absorbed. On the other hand, dietary fiber is fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, which directly absorbs the water in the fiber, softens the stool, and has a laxative effect.

Generally speaking, obesity is related to increased intake of energy from food or reduced physical activity. Increasing the dietary fiber content in the diet can reduce the intake of energy and the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the intestine, which ultimately consumes body fat and plays a role in weight loss.

Only 30% of the calcium intake in the diet (RDI = 800-1200 mg/d) is absorbed and utilized, and 70% is excreted from the body. The effect of water-soluble dietary fiber on calcium bioavailability: improving intestinal calcium absorption, calcium balance and bone mineral density.

As modern people eat more refined and softer food, they have fewer opportunities to use their oral muscles and teeth, so tooth loss and tooth decay are becoming more common. Increasing dietary fiber naturally increases the opportunities to use oral muscles and teeth for chewing, which in the long run will improve oral health and function.

Because some components in dietary fiber, such as pectin, can bind to cholesterol and lignin can bind to bile acid, allowing it to be excreted directly from the feces, thereby consuming cholesterol in the body to replenish the cholesterol consumed in the bile, thereby lowering cholesterol and thus helping to prevent coronary heart disease.

The formation of gallstones is related to the high cholesterol content in bile. Since dietary fiber can bind cholesterol, it promotes the secretion and circulation of bile. Therefore, it can prevent the formation of gallstones. Some people give patients 20-30 grams of bran fiber every day, and after one month, they can find that the gallstones are smaller, which is related to the smooth flow of bile.

Hemorrhoids occur because of long-term blood stagnation and congestion caused by constipation. Dietary fiber has a laxative effect, which can reduce the pressure around the anus and make blood flow smooth, thus preventing and treating hemorrhoids.