Major points:

Fiber cannot be broken down by the body’s digestive enzymes and is found almost exclusively in plant-based foods.
Fiber contributes to longer satiety, prevents constipation, and binds toxins in the intestine.
While Neatic does not focus on fiber, a fiber-rich diet can be beneficial due to its positive health effects.

What is fiber ?

Dietary fiber cannot be broken down by your body’s digestive enzymes.

It is found almost exclusively in plant foods such as:

Grains (e.g., wheat, spelt, oats, and green spelt) and products made from them, such as bread and wholemeal pasta
Legumes (e.g., lentils, chickpeas, and kidney beans)
Nuts and seeds (e.g., walnuts, peanuts, linseeds, and pumpkin seeds)
Fruits (e.g., apples, cherries, and raspberries, but also dried fruits)
Vegetables (e.g., carrots, peppers, fennel, and cabbage)

Dietary fiber has different tasks

Fiber’s useful tasks include:

It binds water, which makes the stomach contents more voluminous and thus increases satiety
It stimulates digestion
It prevents constipation
It serves as food for good intestinal bacteria
It binds toxins in the intestine

It is not difficult to increase your fiber consumption, e.g., replace white flour products with whole grain products and eat more vegetables, fruits, and legumes.

What do you have to pay attention to?

If you eat fiber-rich foods, you should drink enough so that the fiber has sufficient liquid to swell, especially if you add wheat bran and psyllium husks to your meals. If you want to add more fiber to your diet, increase your intake slowly. Your gastrointestinal tract needs to get used to it. In the beginning, you may experience bloating or a feeling of fullness. This usually subsides after a while.

What does Neatic recommend concerning fiber?

Without a doubt, a high-fiber diet has health-promoting effects. Yet Neatic does not address fiber. Why? Because Neatic focuses only on the three taste seducers flavor, sweeteners, and sugar. Implementing Neatic’s principles is challenging enough. Adding more principles – on fiber, for example – would complicate the program and increase the risk of dropout.

There is nothing at all wrong with eating more fiber. You may even do this unconsciously with Neatic because you eat more fruit to satisfy your craving for sweets.

Bibliography:

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e.V. (2019): Ballaststoffe – wertvoll für Ihre Gesundheit. Available online at https://www.dge-medienservice.de/ballaststoffe-wertvoll-fur-ihre-gesundheit-10er-pack.html, last checked 11.02.2022.

Höfler, Elisabeth; Sprengart, Petra (2018): Praktische Diätetik. Grundlagen, Ziele und Umsetzung der Ernährungstherapie. 2., überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Stuttgart: WVG, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.