I want to lose weight and I keep hearing that fiber is important, but I don’t know why and I don’t really know how to get it.
Nicole from Elsmere

You’re hearing right, Nicole! Fiber promotes good health and reduces the risk for some chronic diseases. Fiber can help prevent some cancers like colon and breast cancer and fiber reduces the risk of heart disease by helping to lower cholesterol, particularly the LDL or bad cholesterol. Fiber is also a very important part of preventing diabetes and managing blood sugar. As far as weight loss goes, its fiber’s ability to slow absorption of sugar that keeps blood sugars more stable thereby reducing cravings. It also helps us to feel full or satiated so we are less likely to over eat. Along with portion control and eating balanced meals, adding fiber to your diet is a very effective weight loss tool! There are two types of fiber: insoluble and soluble.
Insoluble fiber passes through in intestines undigested. It promotes regular bowel movement and prevents constipation, it removes toxic waste through colon in less time, and it helps prevent colon cancer by keeping an optimal pH in intestines to prevent microbes from producing cancerous substances. You can get insoluble fiber from vegetables like green beans and dark green leafy vegetables, fruit skins and root vegetable skins, Whole-grain products and bran, and seeds and nuts.
Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids and prolongs the stomach emptying time so that sugar is released and absorbed more slowly, helping to lower cholesterol and regulate blood sugar. Food sources of soluble fiber include oat and oat bran, dried beans and peas, and nuts. I suggest you look at the food labels of many of the new brands healthier cereals. Oatmeal has about 1 gram of soluble fiber, but you can find products with as much as 3-5 grams of soluble fiber.