High soluble fiber diet

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Dietary Soluble Fiber and Diabetes 2

 

Clin Excell Nurse Pract 2000 Sep;4(5):272-6

Tabatabai A, Li S.

Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

 

Water-soluble fiber appears to have a greater potential to reduce postprandial

blood glucose, insulin, and serum lipid levels than insoluble fiber. Viscosity

of the dietary fiber is important; the greater the viscosity, the greater the

effect.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=1\

1858448 & dopt=Abstract

Publication Types: Review

PMID: 11858448 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

How does soluble fiber help control diabetes?

Soluble fiber along with complex carbohydrates (starches) can make the hormone

insulin work better. This allows patients to take less diabetes medication while

keeping their blood sugar normal. Persons with diabetes often have sharp rises

of blood sugar following meals. Increased soluble fiber in meals slows down the

release of food into the intestine and keeps the blood sugar from rising

rapidly.

 

How do soluble fibers lower cholesterol?

Soluble fiber forms a gel that binds with certain digestive acids made from

cholesterol in the liver, and then takes the acids away in the stool. In

response, your liver draws cholesterol from your blood to make more acids, thus

lowering your blood cholesterol.

 

How does soluble fiber regulate blood sugar?

·Soluble fiber slows the passage of food into the intestine, leading to greater

control over the amount of glucose entering the blood stream.

-Soluble fiber slows absorption of blood sugar from the small intestine, making

sugar levels easier in control, it slow down the digestion of carbohydrates,

which results in better glucose metabolism.

·Higher consumption of sugary foods can cause drastic highs and lows in your

insulin levels. By controlling blood sugar, soluble fiber takes the edge off

your cravings. This makes it a lot easier to avoid snacking on high calorie

foods.

·It improves mineral absorption by slowing down the passage of food into the

colon. Better mineral absorption leads to smooth functioning of many enzymes and

hormones, which play an active role in effective digestion and absorption.

 

What is the best available soluble fiber?

Soluble fiber is found in oats, oatmeal, oat bran, beans, legumes, barley,

citrus fruits and certain fruits, psyllium, vegetable gum include konjac gum,

pectin, guar gum and gum arabic, to name a few. Oats have the highest proportion

of soluble fiber among cereals.

Usually, soluble fiber is hard to get from foods. Normal food has a very small

percentage soluble fiber. The cereal containing highest level of soluble fiber

is oat bran, which has about 14% soluble fiber. All other food grains contain

much less soluble fiber than oat bran.

Glucomannan is soluble fiber derived from the konjac plant (tuber). Fresh konjac

contains an average of 13% dry matter, 64% of the dry matter is glucomannan, 30%

is starch. That makes Glucomannan the richest soluble fiber resource in nature.

Glucomannan is nature’s most viscous soluble fiber, with the highest water

holding capacity, and largest molecular weight among any dietary fiber. These

properties help to increase its effectiveness against stroke, cancer, diabetes

and gastrointestinal disorders.

 

Can I increase my intake of soluble fiber without increasing my calorie intake?

Regular food has a very small percentage soluble fiber. In order to meet your

daily requirement of soluble fiber, you need to increase the intake of calories

in the form of carbohydrates such as sugar and starch. This is the root cause of

weight gain.

Konjac foods are made of glucomannan derived from the tuber (root) of konjac

plant, which originated in China and Japan. Konjac foods has been used for more

than 2,000 years in China and Japan as part of a healthy diet. In the United

States konjac flour has been used as a thickening and gelling agent in processed

foods for many years.

With konjac foods in your diet, you can enjoy benefit of soluble fiber in your

diet without adding any extra calories or undesirable colors or flavors. It is

the ideal food for diabetes, heart disease, obesity and IBS.

 

 

from http://www.gy.com/fiber/diabetes2.htm