Generally when people talk about diet, they talk about protein, carbs, fat, and calorie counting. You may even hear a general mention of fruits and vegetables, but when was the last time you heard an in-depth discussion about fiber and gut health? Well if its not something you’ve heard about often, I want to talk to you about 5 important things to know about fiber.
Fiber is basically the threads that make up the tissue of plants. In regards to your diet this fiber is known as dietary fiber, or roughage. Its a type of carbohydrate that can not be digested by the human body. Due to the fact that it can’t be broken down by our bodies, it passes through our digestive tract pretty much intact, but what it does along the way is what’s important.
Here are some of the functions of dietary fiber.
Dietary fiber is exclusive to a plant based diet and is not found in meat, dairy, or eggs.
There are two different types of fiber that both important to have in your diet called soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Most plant based foods have a mixture of both even though its not specified on the label.
Soluble Fiber
Insoluble FIber
Fiber fermentation is a process that both soluble and insoluble fiber goes through in the large intestine that result in the production of certain gases and acids that have many significant health benefits. Here are some of those health benefits.
There are 7 foods that are highest my list in regards to fiber.
For more information about how to fix your gut health and increase good gut bacteria, read this article here.
Statistically the average adult only consumes about 15 grams of fiber per day which is nowhere near enough. I won’t give you an exact cookie cutter amount, but a good baseline minimum is around 20-25 grams per 1000 calories. This is only a minimum and in reality your fiber intake should end up much higher than this on a balanced plant based diet.
Having too much fiber in your diet is a very unlikely circumstance, but it is possible. This can be caused by overeating foods that are very high in fiber. Here are some signs that you’ve consumed too much fiber.
In order to avoid these issue, increasing fiber intake should be gradual process, not anything drastic because your body needs to acclimated to these dietary changes.
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