Your Healthy Life: Dietary Fiber

[Guest guest]

A Free-Reprint Article Written by: Janet

Article Title:

Your Healthy Life: Dietary Fiber

See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.

Article Description:

When people talk about dietary fiber, they immediately think

of older people taking large fiber tablets, but proper fiber

intake can benefit everyone at every age. Fiber intake can

help ease digestion and can also lower cholesterol, which is

a leading cause of heart disease, making it a highly

effective, multi-purpose treatment for healthy living.

Additional Article Information:

===============================

826 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2010-01-07 09:15:00

Written By: Janet

Copyright: 2009-2010

Contact Email: mailto:janet.davis@...

For more free-reprint articles by Janet , please visit:

http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/janet-davis.html

=============================================

Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:

=============================================

HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste

Versions Of Article Are Available at:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/d/dietary-fiber.shtml#get_code

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Your Healthy Life: Dietary Fiber

Copyright © 2009-2010 Janet

Mark and Janet

http://www.MarkandJanet.com/

When people talk about dietary fiber, they immediately think of

older people taking large fiber tablets. The truth is, proper

fiber intake can benefit everyone at any age. Fiber intake can

help ease digestion and it can also lower cholesterol, which is a

leading cause of heart disease, making it a highly effective,

multi-purpose treatment for healthy living.

What's interesting about fiber is that it isn't an essential

nutrient in the sense that a body absolutely requires it for

survival or adds something missing from the body. Instead,

dietary fiber is a nutrient that helps act against harmful

processes such as blood sugar variations, high cholesterol, and

digestive discomfort.

Soluble vs. Insoluble

As far as dietary fiber is concerned, there are two types;

soluble and insoluble. These have different effects that are all

essential to a healthy body.

Both types of fiber provide bulk to any meal, lending to a

feeling of fullness. This can reduce appetite and lead to eating

smaller portions that can help weight control as well as provide

the other digestive benefits expected of fibers.

Soluble Fiber prevents constipation by keeping the body's

digestion process regular and steady. It also reduces the time

digestive toxins remain in the system, which promotes a healthier

digestive system as a whole. It helps regulate the pH of the

intestines, helping prevent the development of colon cancer.

Soluble fiber also bonds with water to form a gel that limits the

absorption of glucose, which keeps blood sugar stable and limits

spikes or valleys in your glucose level. This helps reduce the

possibility of metabolic syndrome (a combination of medical

disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular

disease) or the onset of diabetes.

It is soluble fiber that lowers cholesterol, both the total

cholesterol and the low-density lipoprotein, (LDL or " bad "

cholesterol) which leads to heart disease. Cholesterol builds up

in the walls of the arteries, which carry blood from the heart to

the rest of the body. This results in a hardening of the

arteries, known as atherosclerosis. Blood flow is drastically

reduced, blood pressure rises, and oxygen carried to the heart is

reduced. This puts extra strain on the entire system, eventually

leading to heart attacks or outright heart failure. In many ways,

controlling the level of LDL cholesterol in the body is the most

beneficial result of proper soluble fiber intake.

Green vegetables such as peas and various beans, oats, and rye

are good sources of soluble fiber. Good fruits include the inside

of apples and pears, as well as bananas, plums and prunes. Oats,

barley, and rye are good grain sources, and the skins of root

vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots can also be

beneficial. Stringy green vegetables like broccoli and artichokes

shouldn't be neglected either.

Insoluble fiber also helps keep the digestive system's pH in

balance, reducing gastric acid buildup and keeping the digestive

system regular. Irregular bowel function is more than an

inconvenience - it can also lead to dehydration and lower

gastro-intestinal tract injury. Regular body function also helps

reduce physical and emotional stress, further contributing to

overall wellness.

Whole grain foods are an important source of insoluble fiber. It

may be a good idea to switch out your artificially enriched sweet

white bread for organic, whole grain breads made with 100% wheat

and grains. Nuts and seeds are another good source of insoluble

fiber that can be had as a tasty snack instead of a heavy meal.

Just make sure they aren't heavy in salts.

How Much is Enough?

Dietary recommendations for a 2000-calorie daily diet include

twenty to thirty five grams per day. Children have different

needs, however, and it is recommended that they should have a

number of grams equal to their age plus five (so an eight year

old would require 13 grams per day).

The elderly and the ill have their own requirements. Certain

medications such as painkillers can interact in unexpected ways

with fiber, so a doctor should be consulted in these cases.

Making the Commitment

Dietary fiber is an important nutrient. However, as with many

commitments to better health, it doesn't require a complete

dietary change. Instead, the best method is to gradually include

new sources of fiber into your existing diet. Consider trading

white bread for a whole grain loaf and replacing chip or cracker

snacks with high-fiber, low salt nuts. Vegetables and fruits that

are high in fiber can also be blended into smoothies or shakes,

making getting your daily fiber as easy as having a healthy

beverage at the beginning and the end of each day.

Perhaps the best advice is to take a look at what you're already

eating, talk to a dietician, and modify your diet to fit your

personal needs. There are dozens of resources available for

research on nutritional information, from government and

independent sources alike. The results of these changes will

definitely be helpful, leaving you nothing to lose but poor

health.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Janet and her husband are health and nutrition

entrepreneurs and founders of Mark And Janet, a website

with uncompromising, premium products for your health

conscious family. For more on going green -- Visit us at:

http://www.MarkandJanet.com/ or check out our blog at

http://www.MarkandJanetBlog.com/