Experts say foods that are high in fiber are good for your health, and it’s true that eating more fiber can help you lose weight and even maintain a healthy weight.
Fiber is probably best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation, according to the Mayo Clinic, but they say foods that are high in fiber also provide several health benefits, like lowering a person’s risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.
VERIFY viewer Melina wants to know what other health benefits eating more fiber can offer, like if it can help people lose weight.
THE QUESTION
Does eating more fiber help with weight loss?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, eating more fiber can help with weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight.
WHAT WE FOUND
Dr. Whitney Lisenmeyer, an assistant professor of nutrition at Saint Louis University who serves as a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told VERIFY it’s “absolutely true” that eating foods containing fiber can help a person lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.
“Fiber can help with weight loss or with just maintaining a healthy weight. There’s tons of really good evidence to support that fiber does a lot of different things to our health. It helps us to feel fuller longer after eating a meal so that we’re not hungry again two hours later after eating,” said Lisenmeyer. “It can really help with blood cholesterol levels for patients, well for everybody really, but especially for patients that might have diabetes or prediabetes. It can help with our cholesterol levels, too, so there’s lots of all-around whole body system benefits to eating fiber.”
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plant foods. There are two basic types of fiber, which are defined by how they react with water: insoluble fiber, which does not dissolve, and soluble fiber, which does. While both types of fiber provide health benefits, the AICR says soluble fiber, which is also referred to as viscous fiber, is typically the focus of weight research.
“When viscous fiber mixes with water in our body it becomes a gel-like consistency and slows down digestion. That can help people feel full longer, which can help people eat less,” the AICR says on its website. It also mentions that AICR research has found that eating foods containing fiber can help people lose …….