Fiber-Girl - Prevent and Reverse Type II Diabetes

Check out my new book - Free to Eat!

Prevent and Reverse Type II Diabetes

Fiber is critical for combating diabetes because it slows the rate of glucose absorption. What is important is not the amount of sugar or starch in a food, but the amount of fiber since that determines the rate at which sugar is digested. Thus, a low-fiber food (like white rice) will have a much faster rate of glucose absorption than a high-fiber food (like brown rice). A low-fiber food will cause blood sugar to spike and fall quickly, whereas a higher-fiber food makes glucose climb slowly, stay within healthy parameters for a longer period, and lower slowly.

Eating low-fiber foods day in and day out taxes the body's insulin. Over time, this will lead to insulin resistance. With a high-fiber diet, insulin doesn't have to work so hard. The fiber acts as a "time release" for blood sugar by slowing the release from the stomach to the intestines, so there's never too much glucose for insulin to deal with at once.

If you are concerned about diabetes, check the labels on all the food you eat for fiber content, and count fiber, not total carbs. It doesn't matter if the fiber is soluble or non-soluble (soluble and non-soluble fiber have so many similarly beneficial properties, like lowering blood cholesterol, it's not worth distinguishing between them), just make sure you're consuming at least 25 grams a day.