High Fiber Foods and Natural Weight Loss

Find out how high fiber foods help you lose weight. Here's what you will learn in this page.

Covered in this Section

• Intro to High Fiber
• Three Types of Dietary Fiber
  • Soluble Fiber
  • Insoluble Fiber
• Resistant Starch
• Facts and Studies
• Constipation
• High Fiber Helps You Lose Weight
• Increase the amount of High Fiber in your diet
• Supplements
• Experiment
• Questions?

Intro to High Fiber Foods

Fiber is basically a carbohydrate that can’t be digested by the human body. You find it mainly in plants we eat such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. Unlike most nutrients, it is not absorbed by our bodies but passes through the digestive tract largely intact. Fiber is very important to a efficient digestive system and is one of the tools you can use with your natural weight loss.

Three Types of Dietary Fiber

When talking about high fiber foods, you have to break the high fiber foods into three categories. They are soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, and resistant starch (or just "starch"). Most of the diet of the overweight is comprised of starches. This is one thing to reduce in order to lose weight and lose fat. Lean, slim, fit individuals that stay this way have a relatively low percentage of their diet comprised of starches. With soluble fiber, you should eat these alone and avoid combining them with other foods. With insoluble fiber, you should have a lot of these in the form of fresh, organic raw food and combine it with proteins and starches if you are going to eat with something else.

Soluble Fiber

This type of fiber dissolves in water and turns into a type of gel during digestion. This slows the process of digestion and nutrient absorption. That is why you want to eat these alone. Good sources of soluble fiber include:

• Oat bran
• Oatmeal
• Nuts and seeds
• Legumes (dried peas, beans, lentils)
• Apples, pears, and citrus fruits
• Vegetables such as potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Insoluble Fiber

This fiber does not dissolve in water. Instead, it absorbs many times its weight in water. This creates a soft bulk and speeds up the passage of foods through the stomach and intestines. It also adds bulk to the stool. Eat these in the form of raw food and combine with proteins and starches. Good sources of insoluble fiber include:

• Wheat, corn and rice bran
• Whole-wheat couscous
• Brown rice
• Whole-grain cereals and breads
• Dried beans and peas
• Nuts and seeds

Resistant starch

This type of fiber is the part of starchy foods (approximately ten percent) which is tightly bound by fiber and resists normal digestion. Friendly bacteria in the large bowel ferment and change the resistant starch into short-chain fatty acids which are important to bowel health and may protect against colon cancer. Reduce these foods. An adequate amount is necessary but that amount is nothing compared to what most of us are eating. Examples of starchy foods include:

• Bread
• Cereals
• Rice
• Pasta
• Potatoes
• Legumes
  

Facts and Studies - Can high high fiber foods help lose weight?

You can read these study results that revealed the effect dietary fiber has on weight loss:

• A team of researchers lead by Dr. David S. Ludwig of the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts examined the diets of over 2,900 individuals between 18 and 30 years of age and found that at all levels of fat intake, individuals who ate at least 21 grams of fibre per day gained, on average, eight pounds or 3.6 kilograms less over the 10-year period than those who ate the least amount of fibre.
• In another 12-year study, Dr. Liu and his colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health looked at the intake of grain products in 74,091 nurses. They found that women with the greatest whole grain consumption weighed less AND were less likely to gain weight and become obese.
• A study of 2909 young adult males, by Pereira and Ludwig also found that a higher dietary fiber intake was associated with lower body weight; lower blood pressure; better blood glucose control; lower low-density (bad) cholesterol and higher (good) high-density cholesterol levels. Reviews of randomized trials by Pereira and Ludwig have also found that a high intake of dietary fibre promotes weight loss.^[1]
• Howard, Saltzman & Robert reviewed 11 studies in which amount of food eaten was not restricted, and found a mean weight loss of 1.9 kg over 3.8 months with increased fibre intake.^[2]

Constipation

The main area that high fiber foods, particularly insoluble fiber from raw foods, makes a big difference with weight loss is that is reduces the storage of fecal matter in the colon.

I chose the words storage because that is what happens. Fecal matter with a diet and lifestyle that we live in today, gets stored rather than eliminated easily and regularly.

So much so that what is considered "regular" and "normal" elimination is actually a very poor standard.

Constipation is commonly identified as a condition where the fecal matter is so tightly packed together, that bowel movements are infrequent, and occur with effort and straining.

High Fiber Foods Help You Lose Weight

High fiber foods, particularly insoluble fiber speeds the process of the colons elimination. Insoluble fiber also attracts water and thus hydrates the colon. Most of the time, the problem with digestion and weight loss for that matter is dehydration.

The lack of water in the colon makes the colon unable to do its job. Insoluble fiber naturally attracts water. This helps to increase bulk, soften stool and reduce the time through the intestinal tract. Without fiber, too much water is removed from the colon and the waste matter becomes too solid as a result. The entire digestive tract slows down as a result. Insoluble fiber restores the water balance between the colon and the body making sure that there is enough water in the colon as well as the body.

By reducing the storage time of feces in the colon, the amount of impacted fecal matter is reduced. This allows greater absorption and assimilation of remaining nutrients from the colon into the body.

Increase the Amount of High Fiber Foods in Your Diet

People that are overweight are not eating enough high fiber foods. Period. I have studied the diet of those wanting to lose weight and their diets are devoid of fiber. Entire cultures that have low rates of obesity and obesity related diseases have diets very high in high fiber foods.

High Fiber foods also usually contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. Usually a high fiber food is either predominantly insoluble or soluble rich in fiber.

Those high fiber foods high in soluble fiber moderate the blood sugar and glucose levels in the blood which stops sudden influxes of insulin leaving unused glucose in the body that converts to fat.

Those high fiber foods that are predominantly high in insoluble fiber, especially when the source is from raw, fresh and organic food, increases the health of the colon and reduction of toxicity.

Supplements

Definitely take insoluble fiber supplements. Choosing high quality psyllium husk mixed with herbs that stimulate the colon's nutrient absorbing and waste eliminating process.

Experiment

Try it out. With everything you eat, try making more than 50% of it high fiber foods that are mainly raw and water rich and correctly combined. And start taking a fiber supplement. When you do, you will realize that all the science won't be as convincing as how you will feel once your colon is relieved. You really won't be able to tell how much your colon has been taxed until the consumption of high fiber foods in a raw food form and fiber supplements get your colon moving towards the state it should be in. You need to have your own reality to be convinced as to what works.