Dietary Fiber: An Essential Nutrient for Optimal Health

Dietary Fiber: An Essential Nutrient for Optimal Health

This is shahab in charge of the blog.

Are you getting enough dietary fiber on a daily basis?
Dietary fiber is also called the “sixth nutrient” after vitamins and minerals.
The Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese (2010 edition) set the target amount of dietary fiber at 18g or more per day (19g or more for men and 17g or more for women), but according to the results of the 2009 National Health and Nutrition Survey, , the average intake of dietary fiber was 14.3 g. For that reason, everyone is also likely to be lacking in dietary fiber.
So this time we will talk about dietary fiber.

　What is dietary fiber?

It refers to the ingredients in food that cannot be digested by human digestive enzymes . In addition, dietary fiber is roughly divided into two types: insoluble dietary fiber that does not dissolve easily in water, and soluble dietary fiber that dissolves in water.

Insoluble dietary fiber.

absorbs water and swells several to ten-odd times, stimulating the intestines and activating peristalsis, thereby preventing obesity, constipation, and intestinal diseases.

* In addition to food grains, vegetables, and beans that contain a large amount of insoluble dietary fiber,

it is also contained in the skin of shrimp and crabs.

Soluble dietary fiber.

dissolves in water and forms a gel inside the body, slowing the movement of the food you eat, softening the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, and slowing down the absorption of sugar. This helps to control blood sugar spikes and lower cholesterol. In addition, the gel-like fiber feeds the good bacteria in the large intestine, so it is said to improve the intestinal environment, and can be expected to relieve constipation.