KYW’s Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
There are consistent points mentioned all the time, such as eating more fruits and vegetables and avoiding red meat and excessive carbohydrates.
But a new article published in the Journal of the Lancet suggested fiber may have even more promise as a valuable part of the diet than we thought in the past.
Compared to people who ate less fiber, those who ate more fiber reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, heart disease and stroke.
To put some numbers behind this statement, for every additional 8 grams of fiber consumed, the risk of these conditions dropped from 5 to 27 percent. Another way of looking at it is that by increasing fiber in your diet, the risk of dying from any cause was reduced by 15 to 30 percent.