Several studies have shown that the fiber you naturally get from food, as part of an overall healthy diet, can help protect your ticker. It can control cholesterol, lessens the risk of stroke and type 2 diabetes, and reduces weight loss.
What’s Cholesterol?
Your body needs some kind of cholesterol to work properly. But if you’ve got too much in your blood, it could stick to the walls of your arteries, narrow it or even block it. This will put you at risk for coronary heart disease and other heart problems.
Cholesterol travels through the blood to proteins called lipoproteins. One type, LDL, is sometimes referred to as “bad ” cholesterol. High LDL levels lead to the build-up of cholesterol in your arteries. Another type, HDL, is sometimes referred to as “good ” cholesterol. It brings cholesterol back to your liver from other parts of your body. Then your liver will remove the cholesterol from your body.
What’s Fiber?
There are two types of foods: soluble and insoluble, although most fiber-rich foods contain some.
Fiber is also considered either “functional” or “dietary.” The dietary type is the indigestible part of the plants we eat, such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts. You ‘re going to get it naturally in whole food. The functional type is extracted or produced in a lab — the type of fiber you’ll find in supplements or fiber-rich foods.
Heart-Health Perks
Most people relate fiber with a healthy digestive system. Research has shown that it can do a lot more than just keep you healthy. Scientists are still working to see how exactly this works in the body, though. Some of the ways your heart can help include:
It can control your cholesterol. Soluble fiber may reduce both “bad” LDL and total cholesterol, possibly by binding cholesterol particles to the digestive system and discarding them from the body before they are absorbed.
Fiber helps lower cholesterol in 3 ways.
How Can Fiber Lower Cholesterol?
Grabs to fat and cholesterol in the small intestines are excreted instead of absorbed into the bloodstream.
Reduces the number of bile salts reabsorbed from the intestine. The body needs to produce more bile salts, and it uses cholesterol to do this.
Slows digestion, which slows down the increase in blood sugar after eating. High blood sugar could cause more triglycerides to form, causing more cholesterol to form.
Protects against diabetes and stroke. Change refined grains with fiber-rich whole grains in your diet, and you may reduce the risk of stroke by up to 36% and the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 30%, research shows. Both conditions are connected to an amplified risk of heart disease.
It lowers your blood pressure. In another small study, 233 volunteers had a high-fiber diet, which included a lot of whole wheat and whole oats. The participants were found to have a drop in blood pressure and pulse pressure after 12 weeks.
Encourages healthy weight in the body. Fiber can also be a weight-loss weapon because it gives you a feeling of fullness that helps you stave off your hunger.
All these benefits can add not only to better health of the heart but to a longer life. Researchers followed almost 300,000 participants in the 2011 study over 9 years. They found that eating a lot of fiber was even associated with a lower risk of early death among men and women.
Fiber Supplements
Taking a fiber supplement to help reach your daily fiber intake can reduce your total cholesterol level and lower your LDL ( bad ) cholesterol. Examples include methylcellulose, psyllium husk, dextrin wheat, and polycarbophil calcium. If you are taking a fiber supplement, increase the amount you are taking slowly. This can help to prevent gas and cramping. It is also necessary to take enough fluids when you significantly boost your fiber intake.
