Keep Your Heart Healthy With a Fiber Rich Diet

‘Fiber is good for health’, you must have heard this quite often. Do you the reason behind this? Usually, dietary fiber is known to treat constipation but that’s not all. Fiber rich foods bring along many other health benefits and are great for your heart too.

Fiber can help in prevention of various heart diseases, so it is advisable to include fiber rich foods in your diet. 

Various health benefits of fiber for your heart include:

• It normalizes bowel movements - Passing bulky stool is easier, so dietary fiber helps in increasing the weight and size of your stool. It also makes you less prone to constipation. 
• It helps in maintaining good bowel health - Your risk of suffering from piles and small pouches in your colon can be reduced with a diet rich in fiber. 
• It helps in lowering the cholesterol levels - Because the cholesterol does not circulate in the blood stream, the blood is not as thick and therefore, the vessels exert much less pressure to allow for free flow. A diet change to fiber, can show a marked difference in people with hypertension.
• It helps in managing blood sugar - When it comes to diabetic patients, fiber can slow the absorption of sugar and work greatly in improving the blood sugar levels. 
• It helps in maintaining a healthy weight - As compared to low-fiber foods, high-fiber foods tend to be more filling, so you are likely to feel fuller for longer. Also, high-fiber foods have lesser calories.

However, this does not mean that you can have fiber rich foods in as much quantity as you want. Too much fiber in your diet can lead to intestinal gas, abdominal bloating and cramps in the stomach. Consult your doctor or a dietitian. They will be able to suggest you better on how to increase fiber in your diet gradually over a period of time.