Soluble Fiber
Helps Absorb Nutrition

When you eat food higher in soluble fiber, you can reduce your risk for developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The dietary fiber in food accomplishes two major tasks during digestion:

• Soluble Fiber have prebiotic ingredients that create beneficial bacteria that help complete the digestion process.
• Insoluble Fiber causes wave-like contractions that move food through the digestive tract and waste out of the body.

What is Soluble Dietary Fiber?

This is the part of dietary fiber that dissolves into a gel-like substance, promotes bacteria growth in the intestines, and partially ferments in the colon. This behavior causes

• digestive reactions that improves absorption of nutrients from some foods
• delays absorption of sugars like glucose
• increases bacteria growth needed to complete the digestive process.

Unfortunately, this is the fiber that causes the intestinal gas that can be a social embarrassment if not controlled. The insoluble part of dietary fiber helps to move this soluble activity through the colon and out of the body — with luck, quietly and before gases produced by natural bacteria creates an embarrassing moment.

Recently, food manufacturer's have begun to promote prebiotic fiber (soluble) in products. Such products may list inulin or oligofructose on the package label.

Of course these dietary components are not new — foods high in dietary fiber have always contributed the benefits of soluble fiber to the diet. What is new is our knowledge. Now we know that larger amounts of these fibers in food products can protect us from diseases.

What Does Soluble Fiber Do For You?

Research shows that a diet low in cholesterol and saturated and trans fats, and high in soluble type dietary fiber

• decreases risk of cardiovascular disease,
• lowers total and LDL cholesterol levels, and
• helps control glucose levels.

Studies have confirmed that a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet that includes more soluble dietary fiber reduces blood cholesterol significantly more than the same diet with a lower fiber content.

The prebiotic nature of this dietary fiber increases bacteria growth in the intestines which is necessary to complete digestion and allow your bloodstream to absorb all nutrients from the food you eat.

Where Do You Get Soluble Fiber?

All high-fiber foods naturally provide both soluble and insoluble fiber to your diet, and it is important to consume adequate amounts of both types of fiber to maintain a healthy body. Such foods are easily found in grain, vegetable, fruit, and nut products.

However, you will get the benefits of soluble fiber more from foods like oats, barley, peas, beans, citrus fruit, apples, and carrots, than from whole grains, bran, or leafy vegetables.

Many food products are now enriched with functional fiber (isolated from plant sources or synthetic) to increase dietary fiber content. Often these products carry marketing messages highlighting the prebiotic effect or may list psyllium, inulin, or oligofructose on the food label.

Other products may promote probiotic enrichment, which means the food contains an active micro-organism or bacteria (similar to those stimulated by dietary fiber in the large intestines). The purpose of probiotic enrichment is to increase intestinal bacteria activity, and provide health benefits similar to those you get from a high fiber diet especially rich in soluble componets.

Foods Highest in Soluble Fiber

Grains like oats and barley are studied for their effect on blood sugar and cholesterol because of their high soluble content. In fact several studies on barley investigate the effect of soluble fiber on weight loss, heart disease, glucose utilization, and insulin sensitivity may prove more nutritional advantages for this grain that we already know.

While foods like oatmeal and other grain-based cereals and side dishes like barley and brown rice are good sources for soluble components, many other food choices are available:

• legumes like chickpeas (garbanzo, cice), dried beans (cooked), lentils, and green peas,
• citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits,
• fruits like apples and pears,
• vegetables like corn, cabbage, and carrots and many others.

Adding Fiber To Your Diet

Healthy adults should consume 25 to 30 grams of total fiber a day to maintain good health. Adding more soluble-fiber foods to your diet helps you maintain a healthy heart and lowers your risk of coronary diseases and diabetes.

An increase of the amount of gas or air passed from your body is a normal reaction to higher soluble-fiber consumption. If your body is not releasing gas, you probably are not consuming enough soluble fiber.

If excess colon gas becomes a problem for you, check that you are eating a variety of high-fiber foods, to ensure a balance of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Add more insoluble fiber foods (oats, leafy greens, apples) to your diet to help relieve gas distress. Also, make sure you drink plenty of water each day.