Dietary Fiber Reduces Disease Risks

Dietary fiber, also known as roughage, comes in two types – soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber is readily broken down in the colon into physiologically active compounds. Insoluble fiber is metabolically inert, but provides bulk for the intestinal muscles to conduct the body’s detoxification processes.  Vikas Rana, from the Rain Forest Research Institute (India), and colleagues point to research that suggests that modern food habits have led to an increase in the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and type-2 diabetes. These are growing more common even in developing nations where a “western” diet of highly processed foods, high in sugars and saturated fats, beef and dairy products and low in dietary fiber is displacing more traditional options. The team suggests that evidence points to a loss of dietary fiber in the diet as being a major risk factor for health problems but one of the simplest to remedy.  Citing “physiological actions such as reducing cholesterol and attenuating blood glucose, maintaining gastrointestinal health, and positively affecting calcium bioavailability and immune function,” the study authors urge that increased consumption of “dietary fibre can help to improve the health benefits of new generations.”