A candy bar may give you a rush of blood sugar, but half an hour later you’ll be pinching yourself to keep your eyes open as your blood sugar plummets. On the other hand, eat some beans and your blood sugar will rise slowly and stay up there for a week. (I’m kidding, but you get the point).
High-fiber foods, unlike that candy bar, slow the entrance of sugar into the bloodstream. Blood glucose levels rise and fall gradually and gently, like the waves in a lake on a nice summer day as opposed to the waves of the Atlantic Ocean during a hurricane. That’s what you want. Slow and gentle. A sustained level of blood sugar means a substained level of energy. A rollicking out-of-control blood sugar roller coaster is an energy disaster, leading to craving, hunger, foul moods, and fatigue, often at the same time.
The second way fiber helps increase you energy is indirectly, through its effect on weight although there are no magic weight-loss supplements, fiber probably comes the closest. Virtually every study shows that people who consume a high-fiber diet have an easier time controlling and losing weight, probably because fiber not only keeps you full and therefore less likely to overeat, but also because of its aforementioned positive effect on blood sugar.
It’s hard to see why people don’t make more of an effort to get fiber into their diet any way they can, including taking fiber supplements, when you consider fiber’s other benefits, such as contributing to gastrointestinal and cardiovascular health, helping manage blood lipids, and potential offering protection from certain cancers. (See www.jonnybowden.com for brand recommendations on fiber supplements, or visit your health food store).
Energy Comes in Two Types of Fiber
Fiber is essentially indigestible carbohydrate. It comes in two “flavors” (or types) – insoluble and solube. Both are important, but for different reasons.
Soluble fiber, like the name suggests, dissolves in water, and is made up of polysaccharides (carbohydrates that contain three or more molecules of simple carbohydrates). Insoluble fiber (which, obviously from the names, is not soluble in water) is actually made up of the plant cell walls.
Most fiber-containing foods have a combination of these two types, but they are usually known as sources of one or the other, depending on what’s most predominant. A plum, for example, has insoluble fiber in the skin, but soluble fiber in the juicy meat of the fruit. (There’s also a third kind of fiber called resistant starch, which has some of the benefits of both soluble and insoluble fibers).
