Fiber for Blood Sugar Control: Myth-Busting Facts and How to Use Fiber to Lose Weight Naturally

In this article:

• Dietary fiber is a type of carbohydrate that acts differently from sugars and starches.
• Fiber acts as a physical barrier to prevent blood sugar spikes and energy crashes. It also protects your insulin sensitivity and naturally triggers satiety hormones to make weight loss feel easier.
• Learn the truths surrounding popular myths around fiber, such as whether you can eat fruit with diabetes, if all high-fiber foods are nutritious, and if supplements are the same as whole foods. 
• Tricks to using fiber for weight loss include eating fiber first at meals. 
• Lark is available 24/7 to guide you towards healthier choices to reach health and weight loss goals. 

When talking about managing blood sugar and losing weight, it’s common to think of cutting back on carbohydrates, but dietary fiber is different. It’s a type of carbohydrate that most people can benefit from increasing. Important for more than just digestive regularity, fiber also affects blood sugar levels and fullness to make weight loss and blood sugar management easier. However, according to the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans get less than half of recommended amounts of fiber.

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Here’s why high-fiber foods deserve to be the star on your plate if you have prediabetes or diabetes, if you want to lose weight with nutritious dietary choices, or you just want to be healthy. You’ll also read about myths and truths surrounding fiber, and how you can incorporate more dietary fiber into your diet with small changes. 

How Fiber Helps Regulate Blood Sugar

Fiber helps protect your body against high blood sugar. 

Carbohydrate Digestion and Blood Sugar without Fiber

When you eat foods or beverages that contain carbohydrates, your body breaks the carbs down into smaller units called glucose, which is a type of sugar. When glucose is absorbed into your bloodstream after digestion, your blood sugar, or blood glucose, levels increase.

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When you don’t consume fiber with your carbohydrates, a large amount of carbohydrates can enter the bloodstream in a short period of time. Your blood sugar levels can spike sharply. They can go very high very fast. You may have experienced a “sugar high” after eating candy or other sweets or drinking sugar-sweetened beverages.

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To lower blood sugar, your body pumps out a high amount of insulin. Insulin helps blood sugar drop, but the high levels of insulin lead to an excessive drop in blood sugar. This drop in blood sugar can cause hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. You may have experienced an energy crash or sugar cravings if you’ve ever gotten tired an hour or two after eating sugary sweets or drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. 

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Over time, frequent and sharp blood sugar spikes and dips can lead to insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes. 

How Fiber Protects Blood Sugar

Dietary fiber is a game-changer when it comes to blood sugar control. Fiber helps prevent blood glucose and insulin spikes and blood sugar dips. It also improves fullness, which helps you eat less and manage weight naturally. 

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Here are ways fiber affects blood sugar, insulin, and fullness. 

• Dietary fiber acts as a physical barrier. Soluble fiber absorbs water and turns into a thick gel in your gut. The gel slows absorption of sugars and fats so your blood sugar doesn’t spike as fast, and you don’t get hungry as soon after a meal.
• When you consume fiber and blood sugar doesn’t spike as high or as quickly, you don’t need as much insulin to handle it. This helps protect insulin sensitivity, or slow the progression of insulin resistance. That’s key in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. 
• Some types of fiber trigger your body to produce GLP-1. That’s a hormone that promotes satiety and tells your brain that you’re full. Higher GLP-1 levels help reduce hunger and promote weight management. 

Myth-Busting Facts for Nutrition Clarity Around Dietary Fiber

How much do you know about dietary fiber? Check out these myths and facts surrounding dietary fiber. 

Myth 1: Fruit is too high in sugar for people with prediabetes or diabetes.

Truth 1: Most people with prediabetes or diabetes can eat fruit. Fruit is an important source not only of dietary fiber, but also of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients with health-protecting properties. 

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The trick is to manage portions. Half of a large apple or banana, ½ cup of blueberries, or a small peach is equivalent to 1 carbohydrate exchange on the exchange list. Count carbohydrates from fruit like you count other carbohydrates such as from grains, beans, and starchy vegetables. 

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Myth 2: All high-fiber foods are healthy.

Truth 2: Looking for high amounts of fiber on the nutrition facts panel can often be a good guide towards more nutritious foods, but not always. Natural sources of dietary fiber are often nutritious, since they are often less processed. Oatmeal, fresh fruit and vegetables, and nuts are examples. 

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However, some foods with a high amount of fiber have an excess of calories, starchy carbohydrates, or sugars. Sweetened breakfast cereals and packets of flavored instant oatmeal, can have half or more of your daily limit for added sugars. It’s best to check fiber content, the list of ingredients, and other nutrients on the nutrition facts panel when making your decisions.

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Myth 3: You can’t have high-fiber foods on a low-carb diet.

Truth 3: It’s true that fiber is a plant-based nutrient and a type of carbohydrate. It’s only in foods with other carbohydrates. However, you can portion out your servings of high-fiber foods to get more fiber while staying within the carbohydrate goals that you and your healthcare provider decide on. In addition, non-starchy vegetables like green beans, broccoli, artichokes, and spinach are low in carbs, and high in fiber. 

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Here is information on high-fiber foods on a low-carb diet. 

Myth 4: A dietary fiber supplement is the same as getting fiber from natural food sources.

Truth 4: Dietary fiber supplements can help with specific benefits, but they have some limitations compared to whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts. Most fiber supplements have only 1-2 types of fiber, while whole foods may have a wider variety. Plus, whole foods have additional nutrients, especially phytonutrients, or plant-based nutrients, that you can’t get from supplements. 

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Ask your healthcare provider before taking a dietary fiber supplement. They can be helpful for some people who have trouble eating high-fiber foods, but be sure to follow precautions like increasing amounts gradually, and drinking plenty of water to prevent choking and constipation.

Using Fiber for Weight Loss

Increasing dietary fiber and nutritious high-fiber foods can be one strategy to support weight loss efforts, assuming your healthcare provider approves and you continue to make other smart lifestyle choices. 

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Here are some tips for using fiber for weight loss.

• Know which foods to choose. Vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes like beans and lentils are natural sources of fiber. Here is a list of high-fiber foods.
• Fill half your plate with vegetables. That way, you’re sure to enjoy low-calorie, high-fiber foods at most meals, which helps reduce total calorie consumption so you can lose weight.
• Consume fiber first. When you have a meal, try to eat vegetables, vegetable soup, beans, or other sources of fiber before you eat the other foods on your plate. Protein comes next, and save starchy carbohydrates for last. 

Go here to learn more ways to sneak more fiber into your diet. Check out a high-fiber meal plan for weight loss here. 

Lark Can Help

Dietary fiber can help with blood sugar control and so much more. Lark can help you choose high-fiber foods and make other changes to manage blood sugar, lose weight, and manage or prevent chronic conditions. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

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Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!

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