Thursday, January 17, 2013

MYTH: Added fiber keeps you full...
High-fiber foods, like fruits and vegetables, take longer to digest and hold more water, which is why they fill you up and aid weight loss. Companies have capitalized on this by adding fiber to everything from yogurt to snack bars. But do these fibers work? University of Minnesota researchers had participants replace two meals a day with a low-fiber snack bar or one that contained 10 grams of added fiber. The results (published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) show the added fiber had no effect on fullness and caused more bloating than the low-fiber bars. "Everyone in the food industry is jumping on the fiber bandwagon," says Bonci, "but as this study shows, not all fibers are created equal."

Make it work To quell hunger, Bonci recommends sticking with foods naturally high in fiber-whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. They tend to be lower-calorie and take up more room in the stomach than processed foods with fiber.


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