What is it about dietary fibre, which is simply the tough, structural parts of fruits, vegetable, legumes, seeds and grains that makes it so good for our health?  The most important thing is this: fibre isn’t fully broken down during digestion. Rather, it travels more or less intact from the stomach to the intestines and from the intestines into the stool. Some people think this is a problem and worry about indigestion. But this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s precisely because fibre isn’t fully absorbed that it’s such a powerful healer.

     Although we often discuss fibre as if it were a single substance, there are actually two main types: soluble and insoluble. Most foods from plants contain both types, although they usually have more of one kind than the other. Apples for example contain mainly soluble fibre, while grains are high in the insoluble kind. 

     Even though both types of fibre pass through the intestine without being absorbed, that's where the similarity ends. They act in totally different ways inside the body, and as a result, they help protect against different conditions. If you have a high cholesterol, for example, your doctor may advise you to get slightly more soluble fibre in your diet, which can help lower the amounts of this dangerous substance in your bloodstream. People with a family of colon cancer, however, may want to get more of the insoluble kind.

          If you eat chia regularly, together with a variety of fruits, vegetable, whole grains, and legumes, you’ll automatically get healing amounts ofboth kinds. Chia seeds have both soluble and insoluble fibre. Considering how we fill ourselves up with a lot of unhealthy food on a daily basis, chia seeds' fibre make this seed one of the most valuable whole food in today's modern world.

"Exactly how much of chia’s fiber is insoluble and soluble is hard to pin down," says nutrition journalist David Mendoza. "But about three-fourths is insoluble and one-fourth soluble. Still, chia’s soluble fiber has a much higher viscosity than other dietary fibers such as beta-glucan and guar. This means that it has significantly increased intestinal transit time, delayed gastric emptying, and a slower rate of glucose absorption."

Soluble Fiber: An Essential Barrier

     Many of the things that cause disease, from chemicals in the environment to too much cholesterol in the diet, make their first assault inside the digestive tract. When you eat a steak, for example, molecules of fat and cholesterol pass through your intestinal wall and into your bloodstream. Or there could be harmful substances, like toxic traces from artificial preservatives, flavouring and food colour. As these toxins pass through the alimentary canal (digestive tract), it can damage sensitive cells, possibly increasing the risk of cancer. 

     It’s here, inside the digestive tract, that soluble fiber provides the most protection. When it dissolves, it forms a sticky gel that acts like a protective coating, preventing most harmful substances from moving into our blood or causing damage in the digestive tract. 

     Take the example of steak. If you accompany it with fibrous vegetable, or if you had drank a glass of chia water beforehand, the gel from the soluble fiber will trap the molecules of cholesterol and prevent them from getting into your bloodstream. Because the soluble fiber itself isn’t absorbed, it passes out of the body in the stool, taking the cholesterol with it. 

     Research has shown that people who get the most soluble fiber in their diets are the least at risk for heart disease. In one study, for example, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that men who got 7 grams of soluble fiber a day were 40 percent less likely to die from heart disease than those getting only 4 grams. 

     In addition, soluble fibre seems to increase cells’ sensitivity to insulin, so more sugar can move from the blood into the cells. Because chia seeds forms a gummy gel in the intestine, it helps prevent glucose from being absorbed into the blood too quickly. This in turn helps keep blood sugar levels from rising or dipping too drastically. In studies conducted by Nutrition Physician Dr James W. Anderson MD, people with Type II diabetes who are a high-fiber (and high-carbohydrate) diet were able to improve their blood sugar control by an average of 95 percent!  People with Type I diabetes on the same diet showed a 30% improvement.  Soluble fiber has other benefits as well. Because it causes nutrients to be absorbed more slowly, it helps people feel more satisfied after eating, so they snack less. 

Insoluble Fiber: An Intestinal Sponge 

     The remarkable thing about insoluble fibre is that it leaves the digestive system in very nearly the same condition in which it went in, which is why doctors once believed that ‘roughage’ played little part in good nutrition. But insoluble fiber is more than just hardy. It’s also incredibly absorbent. It can soak up many times its weight in water as it passes through the intestines. As a result, it causes stools to become larger, firmer, and easier to pass. This is why doctors recommend that people with constipation and other digestive complaints get more insoluble fiber in their diets. 

     Insoluble fiber helps in yet another way. Because it causes stools to become larger, the intestine is able to move them along more quickly. This is important because the more time stools and any harmful compounds they contain stay in the colon, the more likely they are to damage cells and kick off the cancer process. 

     When researchers from the National Cancer Institute of Canada analysed 13 studies involving more than 15,000 people, they found that people who ate the most fiber-rich foods were able to lower their risks of colon cancer by at least 26 percent. In fact the researchers estimated that if people increased the fiber in their diets by only 13 grams a day, they might lower their risks for colon cancer by as much as 31 percent. 

     It’s not only the colon that benefits from insoluble fiber. Evidence suggests that it may help reduce the risk of breast cancer as well. 

     The more estrogen women are exposed to during their lifetimes, the greater the risks of breast cancer. But insoluble fiber binds to estrogen in the digestive tract, leaving less estrogen in circulation in the body. A study in researchers at the University of Toronto and the National Cancer Insitute of Canada found that women who ate 28 grams of fiber a day had about 38 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer than those getting 14 grams a day.

 Resource: The Doctors Book of Food Remedies, By Selena Yeager   

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