Dr. Mark's Minute - Nutritional Change Our Low Fiber Diet

So there's been a few big changes in our diet over the last hundred years, and one of them has been our low fiber diet. Along with our increased consumption of sugar, our fiber consumption has plummeted. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate about 50 to 100 grams of fiber a day. Now the average American eats between 8 and 15 grams a day. The fiber is really important because it slows the absorption of sugar into your blood from our gut, and it makes you feel full, and it reduces your cholesterol. The fiber in our diet comes mostly from plant foods like fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains and beans. And those who eat a refined diet, it's processed out of boxes, packages or cans, typically get less fiber than those who eat real whole fresh food. The lack of fiber in our diet has enormous implications for our health. It contributes to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancers, and so many other chronic diseases. In fact, studies show that the addition of high levels of fiber to our diet is as effective as diabetes medication in lowering blood sugar without any of the bad side effects.