Having too much fiber in your system can cause problems, even though fiber is essential to our good health, and we are constantly being advised to have a plentiful supply of high fiber foods in our diet. Our body does like it best however when things are more or less balanced out in terms of nutrition. Taking in too much of certain elements, even vitamins or minerals, can sometimes result in health problems; at times these problems can even be quite serious. As we shall see, an excess of fiber in our diet can also create some problems, but generally these are not life-threatening, and the symptoms are usually pronounced enough to give us ample warning that a change may be in order, without being severe enough to incapacitate us.
Why Eat Less Of What Is Supposed To Be Good For You? - Fiber does so much that is beneficial that the idea of having to cut back from having too much of it just doesn't seem to make all that much sense. Fiber is essential in moving food through the digestive tract. If food moves too slowly, we may absorb toxins that otherwise would be eliminated. If food moves way too slowly, we run the risk of getting plugged up, or constipated. Fiber in the diet has also been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes and diverticulitis. Having too much fiber would seem to be preferable to facing the greater risk of contracting any of these sometimes deadly diseases. In truth, the problems associated with too much fiber are not nearly as serious as cancer, heart disease and the like. But we'll get to that in a moment.
Soluble And Insoluble Fiber - Fiber is found in all plants, so we get what we need from eating vegetables and fruits. The curious thing about fiber is that it technically is not a nutrient. Fiber does not contain any nutrient that the body uses, as it would use a vitamin, a mineral, protein or fat. What fiber does do, is acts as a cleaning machine, a mop and a sponge if you will. There are two types of fiber, both of which work in our intestines. Soluble fiber absorbs water in the intestines and by so doing, limits the amount of glucose that is absorbed into the bloodstream. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to the stools, while at the same time softening them. This makes elimination easier and more efficient. Insoluble fiber functions to keep our intestines cleaned out. By eating too much fiber, the overall effectiveness of either or both of these benefits may be compromised.
Fiber also functions to decrease the absorption of fat and fat calories in the body. While an intake of fiber by itself will not cause you to lose weight, an adequate amount taken daily will help in keeping you from putting added weight on. We mentioned earlier that fiber helps fight heart disease. It does this by helping lower the amount of bad cholesterol in our bodies, without lowering the levels of good cholesterol. And by helping food move though our intestinal tract efficiently, thus decreasing the amount of toxins coming into contact with the walls of the intestines, the risk of colon cancer is reduced. Fiber is also thought to be a cancer fighter in that it binds carcinogens together, at the same time as it is moving them more quickly through the intestinal tract.
Will Too Much Fiber Lead To Bad Things? - So just what can happen if we take in too much fiber? The short answer to this is - discomfort. Where a deficiency of fiber can result in constipation and hard and infrequent stools, often accompanied by pain in the abdomen, too much fiber can result in a feeling of bloating and gassiness. There may also be abdominal pain, usually associated with the boating and gassiness, and your bowel movements can be quite frequent and at times large in volume.
Having too much fiber isn't really a matter of crossing some magic threshold or forbidden line. In fact each of us usually has a different fiber need than does the next person. The fact is that most Americans' don't get the amount of fiber they should have, most often half the amount or less. The problem we are most apt to encounter is one of increasing our intake of fiber suddenly, or at least too rapidly. If your daily intake of fiber is about what it should be, and for some reason you start taking high-fiber pills or supplements, you could find yourself experiencing gassiness or one more of the other symptoms associated with suddenly having too much fiber in the system. If you think you need to increase the amount of fiber you ingest, it's a good idea to make any dietary changes gradually, and let your body tell you if you start going over the limit.