10 High-Fiber Foods To Improve Your Diet – #4 Is Amazing

Food with a lot of fiber, you hear a lot about it in everyday life. People always make it appear that high-fiber foods are very healthy. Yet many people do not know whether this is correct or why this is correct.

Is fiber-rich food really as good as many people make it out to be?

We will come back to this in detail in this article and we will of course also provide a list of fiber-rich foods with which you can improve your diet.

Table of Contents

• What exactly is fiber?
• Why is fiber important?
• How much fiber do I need?
• Examples of fiber-rich foods:
• How do I know I’m not getting enough fiber?

What exactly is fiber?

Fibers are very small parts of plants, which is why they are found in plant products.

Your body’s small intestine is unable to digest the fibers, so they end up in your large intestine.

Fibers fall under the category of carbohydrates and are very diverse.

This diverse property is because there are different fiber types. You can roughly divide fibers into fermentable fibers and non-fermentable fibers.

Fermentable fibers are broken down by specific bacteria in the large intestine. This process releases substances and energy that your body can use.

Non-fermentable fibers are not broken down in the large intestine and leave the body unaltered.

Both types contribute to your health in their own way, we will come back to this later.

In addition, you may also sometimes hear the term ‘added fiber’. What exactly is this?

Added fiber is a fiber that has been added later to a particular food product. This is done by extracting fibers from fiber-containing products and processing them in the relevant food product.

Why is fiber important?

We’ll just get straight to the point; fiber has many positive health effects, which is why it is important to get enough fiber.

We will now specify these health effects.

1. Preventing type 2 diabetes : Research has shown that people who eat a lot of fiber have a 15% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. It also seems that this relationship is proportional, meaning that the effect becomes greater with a larger intake of fiber. There is of course a certain maximum for this effect.

2. Works against cardiovascular disease : Enough fiber intake reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. People who eat enough fiber have about 20% less chance of this compared to people who do not. Again, the relationship seems to be proportional to a certain maximum.

3. Maintaining a healthy weight : There are no good scientific studies that show the effect of fiber on weight. Nevertheless, fiber-rich products reduce the feeling of hunger. That is why people generally like to eat a lot of fiber-rich food when losing weight.

4. Good bowel function and movement : Fiber is important for a healthy gut and smooth stools. This can prevent, among other things, hemorrhoids, constipation and bulges of the colon wall.

How much fiber do I need?

You need between 30 and 40 grams of fiber per day when you are an adult.

However, research has shown that many people do not reach this amount.

So make sure you gain insight into your fiber intake!

Examples of fiber-rich foods:

In general, fiber is abundant in whole-wheat products, legumes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and potatoes.

Below we give more specific examples of foods that you can eat that contain a lot of fiber.

Food	Grams of fiber (per 100 grams)
Oatmeal	8,2
Blackberries	7,6
Lentils	7,5
Broccoli	6,7
Whole grain bread	6,6
Raspberries	6,4
Black beans	6
Brussels sprouts	4
Quinoa	3
Sweet potatoes	2

How do I know I’m not getting enough fiber?

We have found that it is extremely important to get enough fiber and we have just provided examples of high-fiber foods to achieve this.

Even though you pay attention to it, it can happen to you that you don’t get enough fiber.

That’s why we share 3 signals that show you when this is the case.

1. You rarely go to the toilet (to defecate) : A blockage in the stool can be a signal of too little fiber. As we discussed earlier, fiber contributes to intestinal function.

2. You have high cholesterol : In the body, fibers bind to cholesterol and in this way cholesterol leaves the body.

3. You are hungry again shortly after a meal : Foods with fiber reduce the feeling of hunger, so if you eat too little fiber you will quickly get a feeling of hunger.