Eating fiber may be the best way to keep your blood sugar in check

The ‘cure’ for diabetes may be right in front of you

I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials that describe how one type 2 drug activates what’s already inside of your body to fight diabetes.

Now imagine that one of those commercials shows a patient holding up a spear of broccoli or waving some asparagus around, instead!

Well, considering what a group of international researchers just published in the journal Science, that isn’t as far-fetched as you might think!

Of course, it’s been known for quite a while that diets high in fiber (what my grandparents called “roughage”) can help protect against a wide range of ailments.

But what we’re learning now is that the health benefits from fiber are a lot more powerful than originally believed, especially when it comes to diabetes.

And it all has to do with the trillions of microbes in your body — a large number of which are ready, willing, and able to go to work in keeping you healthy.

That is, if you’re keeping them well fed.

Gut instincts

Sometimes, it seems like really good advice is repeated so often that we start to take it with a proverbial grain of salt.

And no time is that truer than when we hear about how important it is to eat our recommended daily quota of fruits and veggies. I think at this point, just about anyone over the age of 4 knows that’s a really good idea!

But if you have type 2 diabetes, filling your plate with plant-based foods that contain loads of fiber may be one of the most important things you can do to keep your blood sugar under control.

Led by a food and nutrition specialist from Rutgers University, scientists from several major medical centers in China have now discovered that, if fed properly, certain “good” bacteria in our GI tracts actually “ferment fiber into acids.”

While that may not sound like a “cure” for high blood sugar, it turns out that having an “acidic microenvironment” in your gut is exactly what’s needed to keep your beneficial bacteria thriving!

And when those good gut microbes are happy, they do what’s necessary to keep your blood sugar properly regulated.

Although this involves some highly complex science, what needs to be done on your end is as easy as can be.

Fiber is simply the non-digestible part of veggies, beans, nuts, and grains that works its magic as it travels through your digestive tract. And getting more of it on your plate starts out when you’re in the supermarket (or as we’re moving towards spring, at your local farmers market).

If you make it a point to spend more time filling your basket with foods from the outside walls of the store where the fresh fruits and veggies are… and less time in the aisles that stock the processed foods… you’ll have made a giant stride toward controlling your blood sugar.

Along with that, taking a high-quality probiotic every day — one that includes a wide variety of strains of beneficial bacteria — is also vital.

But even if you don’t have to keep a close watch on your glucose levels, there are many other reasons to include more simple plant fibers in your diet.

One study we told you about two years ago found that certain special intestinal cells can hunt down and fix damaged brain neurons that, unchecked, could lead to Parkinson’s disease.

Then there’s the fact that we now know 70 percent (or more!) of our immune cells are located in our guts. Call it another reason why making sure that you’re feeding those microbes well is one of the healthiest habits you can have!

“For diabetics, a high-fiber diet feeds gut microbes, lowering blood sugar” Meghana Keshavan, March 8, 2018, Stat, statnews.com