Insights
We know you’ve heard it before, “Do you have enough fiber in your diet?” An easy way to begin adhering to that advice and get your daily dose of fiber up to par – 25-30 grams per day (from food, not from supplements) – is by eating Black Butte Chickpeas®, a type of specialty pulse.
Chickpeas contain 29 grams of fiber per one-third cup. Eat that amount, and you’ve already eaten your full daily recommendation. That’s not all these fiber-rich grains do for your health; below are a few more benefits that’ll have you incorporating Black Butte Chickpeas® into your diet by the time you’re done reading.
When You’re Having Trouble Losing or Maintaining Weight
Consider increasing your soluble fiber intake. Though insoluble fiber is a healthy helper too, it’s more for those who struggle with constipation. When struggling with weight loss or maintenance, shoot for foods with high soluble fiber content – like chickpeas – since soluble fiber feeds the good bacteria in your gut. Nearly 100 trillion bacteria live in your intestines and to help digest the energy sources you consume these tiny organisms need to eat too.
Soluble fiber happens to be a favorite meal for your digestive tract’s inhabitants. When you don’t eat enough fiber-rich foods, these microorganisms get hungry, and your brain tells you to eat more often so the bacteria can do their digesting tasks. Consume the right amount of fiber, and these intestinal worker bees won’t be left hungry meaning neither will you!
Poor eating habits don’t properly feed your body’s microbiomes, and result in hunger pangs when you don’t really need to eat…hence that undesirable weight gain or struggle with maintaining. Proper eating habits and healthy fiber intake will curb hunger and help you reach or maintain your weight loss goal.
If You Suffer from Diabetes
High fiber intake helps to lower your body’s blood sugar levels which, as any diabetic well knows, is goal #1 in dealing with this disease. A side note: keeping one’s diet fiber rich also helps prevent becoming diabetic. Wondering how eating high-fiber foods like Black Butte Chickpeas® could impact blood sugar levels? We have the answer. Or, more accurately, Amy Kranick has the answer which we’ve shared below. A registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Vanderbilt University, Kranick explains how fiber consumption affects blood sugar in this following extract from an article by everydayhealth.com:
“When fiber is digested, your body handles it differently than the way in which refined carbohydrates, such as white flour, are digested. A portion of the fiber simply passes through your digestive system intact. This difference means that eating foods rich in fiber is less likely to cause a spike in high blood sugar.
‘Fiber doesn't require insulin [to digest], so it isn't counted as part of your carbohydrates,’ says Kranick. As a result, when you are reading labels and budgeting daily carbohydrates, you can subtract half the grams of dietary fiber from the total carbohydrate count.”
If Your Skin Suffers from Acne or Symptoms of Aging
Believe it or not, your skin is – possibly -- the biggest winner when making an effort to eat the recommended daily grams of fiber. When processed carbohydrates are routed through the digestive system, toxins from those foods are excreted through the skin. In this way, your skin plays an important role in digestion. The downside for your skin in doing so comes when you eat processed foods.
Exposure to the toxins from those foods causes issues like acne breakouts, or, in the long term, aging symptoms like wrinkles. Alternatively, eating fiber-rich, unprocessed foods will decrease the amount of toxin exposure to your skin. This causes the health and appearance of your skin to become enhanced. For those with naturally sensitive skin, keeping an eye on what you eat is an especially good idea.
All told, benefits of incorporating an heirloom grain like Black Butte Chickpeas® into your diet are numerous and long-term. For examples of ways to begin on this health boosting enterprise, you can visit our recipes page. Most importantly, by choosing unprocessed, fiber-rich foods for your daily diet, you impact not only your own health, but also the health of those with whom you share everyday meals. And, in the grand scheme of things, there is not much else we can think of that matters as greatly as the health and well-being of the ones we love and share our lives with.
Note: We cannot prescribe or recommend medical information. Ask your healthcare professional if you have concerns.