Public health organizations and researchers have long hailed the benefits of eating fiber, but how much fiber should we consume daily?
This prompted the WHO or World Health Organization to commission a new study. The results were published in the journal The Lancet. The newly released research wants to help create new guidelines for dietary fiber consumption, as well as to reveal which carbohydrates protect us against noncommunicable diseases and those that can help prevent weight gain.
Noncommunicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases typically last for a long time and progress slowly. There are four main types of noncommunicable diseases according to WHO, they are cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases.
A professor from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Professor Jim Mann, is the corresponding author of the study, and the first author of the paper is Andrew Reynolds, a postdoctoral research fellow at Otago's Dunedin School of Medicine.
Professor Mann explains the motivation for the study. He said that previous reviews and meta-analyses have usually examined a single indicator of carbohydrate quality and a limited number of diseases, so it has not been possible to know which foods to recommend in order to prevent any of the conditions.
Ideal daily intake of fiber
The ideal intake of fiber is 25 to 29 grams every day. Reynolds and his fellow researchers examined the data that included around 185 observational studies. That amounted to 135 million person-years and 58 clinical trials which had around 4,600 participants in total. The studies analyzed took place for almost 40 years. The scientists investigated the incidence of some chronic diseases, as well as the rate of premature deaths resulting from them.
These conditions included cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, colon cancer and a range of obesity-related cancers like endometrial cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and esophageal cancer.
Overall, the research found that people who consume the most fiber in their diet are 15 to 30% less likely to die prematurely from any cause or a cardiovascular condition, compared with those who eat the least fiber. Consuming foods that are rich in fiber are linked with a 16 to 24% lower incidence of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and colon cancer.
Fiber-rich foods include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, pulses like beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils. The authors also suggest that consuming more than 29g of fiber per day may have even more health benefits. However, experts stated that even though the study in itself did not find any adverse health effects of consuming fiber, eating too much of foods that are rich in fiber may be damaging for those with insufficient minerals or iron.
Eating massive amounts of whole grains can deplete the body of iron, according to researchers. Also, the clinical trials included in the study also showed that consuming more fiber correlates strongly with lower weight and low cholesterol levels.
Why fiber is good for your health
Professor Mann said that the health benefits of fiber are supported by research over the past 100 years. The researches and studies have gone into its physical properties, chemistry, effects on metabolism and physiology. He added that fiber-rich whole foods that require chewing and retain most of their structure in the gut increase satiety and can help weight control and can favorably influence glucose levels and lipid levels.
He also added that the breakdown of fiber in the large bowel by the resident bacteria has additional wide-ranging effects, and they include protection from colorectal cancer.
