Function Of Fiber |
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Fiber is like a brush that, in addition to moving things along, can selectively bind unwanted materials and remove them from the system. There are about five or six types of fiber, all of which have properties we require, and a varied diet provides them all. Of course, selective supplementation helps.
Hard fiber, the type found in wheat bran, is the "water carrier" that helps to produce regularity. It gives good stool consistency. This fiber is found in all plant foods, but mostly in high-fiber cereals, grains, most vegetables, beans, and tubers such as potatoes. You can’t eat too much of these foods, and the results will be obvious as you increase them in your diet.
In contrast to hard fiber, the soluble forms of fiber, such as pectin, gums, saponins, and others, are the best at selective adsorption. For example, pectin helps to reduce cholesterol and blood fat by binding the bile acids produced by our livers from cholesterol and removing them in our stools. Oat bran does it even better, and guar gum better yet. Soluble fiber also binds the cholesterol and fat that we get in our diet and helps to carry them through the system.
There is evidence that the soluble dietary fiber from fruits and vegetables can help to remove unhelpful by-products of metabolism, which helps relieve stress. It appears that some materials produced by the body and secreted into the intestine by the gallbladder, in the absence of sufficient fiber, are reabsorbed and thereby act as antagonists and cause problems. The results of intestinal bypass surgery reveal that the micro flora of the intestine also removes toxic by-products.
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