Fiber! Fiber! Fiber!

Eating more fiber may improve the life expectancy of people with diabetes (both type 1 and type 2).

More fiber may help you curb exhaustion and unhealthy snacking

Most people know that you’re not supposed to eat a heavy meal before bed. That can cause heartburn and poor sleep quality. But some researchers wanted to find out what the effects of a short-term diet change could be on sleep. At the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, investigators had a small group of adults (no heavy caffeine users, shift workers or people with sleep issues) spend six days staying in the hospital. For the first four days, they ate a controlled diet prescribed by the researchers. For the last two days, they could eat whatever they wanted.

What’s the big deal about fiber?

Inadequate consumption of fiber is reported to be one of the biggest public health concerns for the majority of the U.S. population. So a good recommendation during this nutrition month of March is to incorporate more fiber into our diets. However, as consumers, we may not be clear why we really should include more fiber in our diets. It is one thing to say that we need to increase our fiber intake, but the message might be more readily accepted if it was more clearly explained to us what fiber is, what it does and where to find it. With so many misconceptions out there, many people don’t really have a clear understanding about the critical role fiber plays in our bodies.