Dietary fiber mainly exists in vegetables, fruits or coarse grains. Although it can't be digested and absorbed by human body, it is very beneficial to human body. The following small series introduces you to what dietary fiber is and what it does. I hope I can help you!
What is dietary fiber?
Dietary fiber refers to polysaccharides and lignans that cannot be decomposed by digestive enzymes.
It can absorb water from the digestive system; Increasing the amount of food in the stomach can increase satiety; It can also promote gastrointestinal peristalsis and relieve constipation; At the same time, dietary fiber can also absorb harmful substances in the intestine for excretion; Improve intestinal flora and provide energy and nutrition for the proliferation of probiotics.
Dietary fiber is a variety of non-starch polysaccharide plant substances, mainly from the cell walls of animals and plants, including cellulose, lignin, wax, chitin, pectin, β-glucan, inulin and oligosaccharides, which are usually divided into two categories: water-insoluble dietary fiber and water-soluble dietary fiber.
Dietary fiber is indispensable for a healthy diet. Fiber plays an important role in keeping the digestive system healthy. At the same time, taking enough fiber can also prevent cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. Fiber can clean the digestive wall and enhance the digestive function. At the same time, fiber can dilute and accelerate the removal of carcinogens and toxic substances in food, protect the fragile digestive tract and prevent colon cancer. Fiber can slow down digestion and excrete cholesterol as quickly as possible, so it can control blood sugar and cholesterol at the best level.
What is the function of dietary fiber?
1, which is helpful for E.coli to synthesize multivitamins.
2. Cellulose has a small specific gravity and a large volume, and occupies a large space in the gastrointestinal tract, which makes people feel full and is conducive to losing weight.
3, cellulose has a large volume, which can stimulate the gastrointestinal tract after eating, increase the secretion of digestive juice, enhance gastrointestinal peristalsis, and prevent and treat diabetic constipation.
4. High fiber diet can slow down the absorption of sugar by delaying gastric emptying, changing intestinal transit time and forming soluble fiber gel in intestine. It can also reduce the secretion of intestinal hormones such as gastric inhibitory peptide or glucagon, reduce the stimulation to islet B cells, reduce insulin release, increase the sensitivity of peripheral insulin receptors, and thus strengthen glucose metabolism.
Recent studies have proved that high fiber diet can increase the binding of insulin receptors on monocytes of patients with type I diabetes, thus saving insulin demand. Thus, eating a high-fiber diet for diabetic patients can not only improve hyperglycemia, reduce the dosage of insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents, but also help to lose weight and prevent constipation, hemorrhoids and other diseases.
The above is about what dietary fiber is. After reading it, do you have your own understanding of dietary fiber and its functions? It is worth noting that the intake of dietary fiber is seriously insufficient, which is also unfavorable to the human body.