Your body doesn’t like things to be too easy. Challenging it from time to time—with exercise, with the elements, and even with short periods of going without food—is often associated with better health outcomes.
The same is true of your gut and the foods it digests. Foods that break down and slip through too quickly (namely, refined starches and sugars) tend to promote overeating, out-of-control blood sugar surges, and other disease-linked side effects. Meanwhile, foods that put up a bit of a fight against digestion are often the best ones for you. That’s certainly true in the case of fiber, which is the edible part of a plant that resists breakdown and absorption in your small intestine.
“The evidence from prospective studies is remarkably consistent that a higher intake of fiber is related to lower risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and weight gain,” says Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.
