Don't forget your morning flax.

More than a hundred studies have shown that eating more fruits and vegetables decreases your odds of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, and early death. And the more vegetables you eat, the more pronounced the benefit.


What is the mysterious health factor associated with vegetables? It could be the simple fact that as we fill up with low fat vegetables we eat less red meat. Or maybe it is the plant antioxidants protecting us from the pesticides and other harmful chemicals in our environment.  The answer, it appears, is much less glamorous - it is the extra fiber.


Fiber is the structural skeleton of all fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans. Fiber is a carbohydrate (a starch) but unlike flour and other dietary carbohydrates, it is impervious to our digestive enzymes. And as a result this fiber passes unchanged into our colon where it is digested as a source of energy by our microbiome (the millions of resident bacteria).


There are 2 kinds of fiber.


Insoluble fiber absorbs water but won’t dissolve in it. Put a teaspoon of bran in a glass of water and you can see for yourself.  The “bulk” of the indigestible fiber in our diet resistants digestion by the microbiome, passing through the colon unchanged. Its benefit is in keeping our stool bulky, helping maintain regular elimination.


Soluble fiber, on the other hand, will dissolve in water and is a “food” used by the microbiome.  Various fatty acids formed as a byproduct of this bacterial metabolism are absorbed into the bloodstream and are thought to be the real reason dietary fiber is so beneficial to our health.


These fatty acids appear to affect various metabolic processes.  For example, aiding in the control of blood sugar levels (diabetes) and helping to lower blood cholesterol and fat levels. Other fatty acids make it only as far as the colon lining cells where they are used by the cells themselves and thus keep the lining of our colon healthy.


Put mice on a low fiber diet and their colon lining cells shrink in size and produce less mucus. A thinning of the mucus barrier lining the colon in turn allows bacteria closer contact with the lining cells themselves. This triggers an inflammatory response as our immune system works to  “protect” us from an invasion of foreign bacteria.


It has been speculated that this ongoing inflammation may play a role in the development of colon cancer. And may be the explanation of the association of a high fiber diet with a decrease in colon cancer risk.


Chronic colon inflammation may also play a role in other inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and asthma, as well as interfering with normal sugar metabolism (diabetes) and also how we store excess dietary calories. It appears to shunt these extra calories directly into fat cell storage contributing to obesity.


By providing energy to the colon bacteria, soluble fiber keeps our microbiome (those millions of bacterial factories in the colon) healthy and productive.


When mice are put on a low fiber diet, the total bacterial population quickly drops to a tenth of its pre-diet size along with experiencing a significant decrease in bacterial diversity. The result? Fewer and possibly less efficient factories to produce those helpful fatty acids.


Thus soluble fiber has two benefits. It provides the raw materials for fatty acid production and is a source of energy to keep the bacterial production facilities open and available.


What are your options to tap into fibers’ benefits?  Increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in your daily diet is the easiest start. This will not only add additional fiber but indirectly decrease the amount of red meat.  


While you are working to diversify your diet, consider adding a tablespoon of flax meal (in applesauce) to your morning vitamin routine, or to your breakfast smoothie. We know this simple step works as diabetics taking a tablespoon of flax meal a day dropped their fasting blood sugars and a subgroup with high blood pressure also experienced a drop in their average readings.


A single change as you take action to improve your health. A small step, but in an important direction. Then in the late afternoon you can add a snack on a couple raw carrots or broccoli as you make dinner.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12875900

http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/n233.html

http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/how-soluble-fiber-promotes-good-gut-bacteria.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/science/food-fiber-microbiome-inflammation.html

Added after publication:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/benefits-of-flax-seeds-for-inflammation/