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Soluble
fiber: Another ingredient in a healthy diet
August 26, 2009
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
Many
people forget that there’s a soft side to roughage in
the diet.
When we think about fiber, bowls of bran cereal come to mind,
along with whole wheat bread, dense, grainy muffins and assorted
edible sticks and twigs. These are sources of insoluble fiber
– the kind that relieves a bout of constipation overnight
and helps prevent conditions like hemorrhoids and diverticulosis
over time.
Insoluble fiber is important, but there’s another form
of fiber that’s equally important to health. It’s
soluble fiber – the soft, gelatinous stuff.
In case you need a quick refresher: dietary fiber comes from
parts of plant foods that we don’t totally digest. All
plant foods contain fiber, including fruits, vegetables, cereal
grains, beans, peas, lentils, nuts and seeds.
Milk, meat, butter and other animal products contain none.
Some plant foods contain more of one type of fiber than another,
but all plants contain a mix of the two. That’s good,
because we need both forms of fiber in our diets regularly
for good health.
Back to soluble fiber.
Instead of adding to your stool mass as insoluble fiber does,
soluble fiber mixes with fluids in your digestive tract to
form a gel that slows the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream.
In that way, soluble fiber can help regulate your blood sugar
level, an especially helpful effect for people living with
diabetes.
Similarly, soluble fiber lowers total cholesterol and LDL
cholesterol levels, lowering the risk of coronary artery disease.
Foods that are particularly rich sources of soluble fiber
include legumes or dried beans such as pinto beans, navy beans,
kidney beans, garbanzo beans and lentils; oatmeal and oat
bran, barley and rye; apples, mangoes, figs, oranges, grapefruit,
peaches, pears, plums and prunes, blackberries and bananas;
artichokes, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, broccoli,
jicama, peas and carrots; whole wheat bagels and pita pockets.
The husks from psyllium seeds are also high in soluble fiber
and are used in some powdered fiber supplements such as Metamucil
and Citrucel.
It isn’t hard to see the many ways in which you can
add gobs of soluble fiber to meals. For example:
* Serve soluble fiber-rich appetizers such as bean dips with
whole wheat pita points, bean nachos, vegetable crudités
and fruit kebobs.
* Build meals around bean dishes such as bean chili, beans
and rice, bean burritos and bean soup. Curried lentils with
vegetables and lentil soup are good soluble fiber sources,
too.
* Supplement with sides such as steamed broccoli, sautéed,
mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and fresh salads. Carrot
raisin salad, jicama salad, marinated vegetable salads and
green salads sweetened with chunks of fruit – apples,
pears, figs or orange sections – offer a nice change
of pace.
* Incorporate whole grains such as millet, barley and quinoa.
Use these as you would rice to make pilafs, casseroles, soups,
and simple sides.
Make a big bowl of oatmeal your morning routine during the
fall and winter months. Enjoy a guilt-free oatmeal cookie.
* Satisfy your sweet tooth with fruits in a variety of forms.
Serve berries in a champagne flute over a scoop of sorbet
or set out a plate of orange or mango slices.
Of course, in addition to lowering your blood cholesterol
levels and regulating your blood sugar, there’s another
side effect to eating more soluble fiber from foods: more
insoluble fiber. The two are inseparable, in most cases.
And the more fiber-rich foods you eat, the fewer artery clogging,
waistline-expanding junk foods and animal products you’re
likely to eat.
So don’t let the emphasis on the rough stuff distract
you from thinking about the fiber you can’t see. Both
forms of fiber – and the whole foods that provide them
– play important roles in protecting and promoting your
health.
Suzanne
Havala Hobbs is a licensed, registered dietitian and clinical
associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and
Management and the Department of Nutrition in the UNC Gillings
School of Global Public Health. Send questions and comments
to suzanne@onthetable.net.
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