We are all advised to eat foods with more fiber, because dietary fiber is a very important ingredient for keeping our bodies healthy. It is particularly helpful for the colon.
Since attention to detail in diet is even more important to diabetics, it stands to reason that fiber is even more important to diabetics as well. And, indeed, diabetics are counseled to consume lots of fiber.
Fiber will also delay the on-set of diabetes in those people who are in a pre-diabetic state. Fiber assists reduce the blood-sugar levels naturally, so it will help everyone in their quest to maintain healthy blood.
The manner in which it does this is fairly simple to understand. Fiber is more difficult to digest than the rest of the sugars and starches that surround it, so it has the impact of remaining in your digestive system for longer, thereby helping you feel ‘full’ longer, and it is digested very slowly thus reducing spikes in your blood sugar level.
Blood-sugar spikes are bad news for anyone who does not need a spike in order to achieve a quest, like a weight-lifter or a sprinter. Spikes in children can lead to instances of hyperactivity in children.
The best sort of fiber is soluble fiber. This type of fiber is found in:
grain that has not been excessively processed to get rid of the husk, so brown rice, whole wheat bread, cereals and pasta.
‘dry’ fresh fruits, not necessarily dried fruits, like bananas, mangoes, pineapple and apples
beans, lentils, legumes and pulses are stuffed almost full of dietary fiber and are effortlessly added to soups and stews.
Another way of feeling ‘full’ so that you are able to reduce the yearning for a large meal is drinking water. Substitute plain tap water or bottled water for fizzy drinks. Your body may need the extra water to help it process the extra soluble fiber that you are eating.
Fiber assists in all dietary situations, but is incorporated into the calculations that some diets use. For example, if you are counting carbohydrates as opposed to calories, you will have a limit or target number of carbs you may consume in a day.
This is 20 carbs a day in the initial phase of the Atkins diet. Some diets will permit you to subtract the amount of fiber from the absolute number of carbs for the purpose of your calculations.
So, for example, you may eat 25 carbs, and, so long as the food contains at least five grams of fiber, you have not broken the guidelines of the diet. You will have to check whether your particular diet allows for this variation.
It sounds like another burden to have to track fiber too as everything else you have to consider before you can consume anything, but it will be second nature after a few weeks or months.
The best way to get started is to pick up a small guide that will fit in your pocket or bag so that you can look into it frequently.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, and is now concerned with Diabetes Cook Books. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Cookbooks For Diabetics.
