Role of soluble fiber in losing excess body weight

Fiber is the most underrated nutrient that mostly gets over shadowed by the likes of calories, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Read on to know how soluble fiber benefits your overall health and assists in weight loss.

Dietary fiber is one of the most important nutrients, which is found in two forms: soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fiber is used as the bulking agent to form easy to evacuate stools and the soluble fiber is strongly associated with an increased metabolism.

Read on to know how the soluble fiber assists in weight loss.

Soluble fiber caters to gut bacteria. The gut bacteria have an important role to play in weight management, managing blood sugar, improving immunity, and even in the functioning of the brain. The gut bacteria help to digest this soluble fiber, which mostly stays undigested until it comes in contact with the gut bacteria, in to a more usable form of energy.

The gut bacteria fights inflammation. The gut bacteria produce short chain fatty acids that further leads to reduced inflammation of the gut and improved inflammatory disorders. As chronic inflammation is associated with heart problems, obesity, Alzheimer’s, and other metabolic syndromes, including soluble fiber in the diet will definitely lower the risk of getting these problems. There are also some observational studies to support the role of high fiber intake with low inflammatory markers in blood.

Fiber supplements for weight loss. Fiber supplements are processed by isolating the fiber component from the plants. There are studies which report that the isolated fiber supplements may be not as effective in losing weight as they are expected to. So, the soluble fiber supplements such as psyllium, guar gum, and viscous fiber (found in plant food source only such as beans, legumes, asparagus, oats, Brussels sprouts, and flax seeds) are actually ineffective as a mean to trigger weight loss. Glucomannan is one exception and is found to result in a modest loss of body weight when used as a supplement.

However, instead of depending upon this sole nutrient, it is any day more sensible to focus on the whole meal and not just on one specific food source. To lose weight more effectively, you should rather focus on a plant based diet, which is low in calories and high in viscous fiber.