Weight Loss: Why Is It Important to Eat Plenty of Plant-Based Fiber to Lose Weight?
Posted on: April 30, 2020 in Category: Food Programs, weight loss blog, weight loss consultation, Wellness Guide
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Eating your daily fiber found in fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts will definitely help you not only lose weight but maintain your weight loss.
The fiber found in fruits and vegetables are non-digestible. Meaning your body can’t metabolically digest the fiber you consume. Fiber passes through your gut providing empty calories. Vegetables and fruits are made up predominately of fiber, minerals, water, vitamins, and phytonutrients. This is why vegetables and fruits have so very few calories.
The tremendous amount of fiber found in fruits and vegetables is the main reason they contain fewer calories, besides being full of water. Not only is fiber empty of calories it is highly satiating; fiber intake fills you up quickly, even more so than protein and fat.
Seeds ( like pumpkin, chia, hemp, flaxseeds) and nuts, like walnuts, almonds, and Brazil nuts also contain fiber. Like the fiber found in vegetables and fruits, the fiber found in seeds and nuts are also non-digestible.
Since fiber isn’t digested it forms a thick layer, an impermeable paste that covers the inside walls of your intestines. This thick-layer of paste made up of indigestible fiber, SLOWS the absorption of nutrients like sugar and fats, thus minimizing the total number of calories being absorbed per unit time.
Think about it carefully; Do we eat vegetables and fruits in order to lose weight? Or, is it the FIBER in vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts that contributes so much to weight loss?
It’s the FIBER that contributes to so much weight loss. People who consume a predominately plant-based diet, take in about 200-300 calories less per day than those consuming the standard American diet.
Consuming fiber allows for:
- Weight loss
- Weight loss maintenance
- Becoming satiated quickly
- Reduces your blood pressure when being hypertensive
- Reduces the absorption of sugars and fats
- Reduces the total number of calories consumed
- Reduces the incidence of colon cancer
- Reduces the incidence of hyperlipidemia, type-2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis.
- Reduces the incidence of auto-immune diseases and constipation
- Reduces the incidence of gastritis, ulcerative colitis, and arthritis.
- Reduces the incidence of atherosclerosis in your blood vessels while reversing and preventing type-2 diabetes.
Fiber also is fermented into butyrate, a small chain fatty acid that improves brain cognition and memory, while reversing depression and anxiety.
Women should consume 30-35 grams of fiber a day, men about 40 grams of fiber per day, at a MINIMUM…. Most people consume only 5 grams of fiber per day. Which is very little. African tribesmen consume up to 80 grams of fiber per day and don’t suffer from colon cancer, heart attacks, or strokes, let alone type-2 diabetes.
Increase your daily fiber intake and you will lose weight and keep it off!!
Want to Learn More?
If you would like to learn more about healthy changes you can make to lose weight and keep it off, please feel free to contact the Sand Institute by calling (310) 441-2263, or fill out this contact form.