It’s easily one of the most important nutrients diet wise when it comes to regulating weight, blood sugar, and diets high in it typically see lower rates of many types of disease. What’s more, foods rich in fiber tend to be rich in other important nutrients.
Fiber is the anti-fad diet. If you are seeking to lose weight, lower cholesterol, increase longevity, decrease blood pressure, reduce the chance for type II, benefit the environment, reduce animal suffering, eat fiber. There is nothing a high fiber diet won’t do for you that every other fad diet claims to do.
And, on top of it all, there is nothing like a good old fiberous poop in the morning.
Purely anecdotal information here, but I have been eating a fiber-rich diet for almost my entire adult life and love it. My weight stays the same effortlessly, I have good energy levels and the regular easy poops are nice too :)
I think plants are undervalued. I use “eat more plants” often.
“Dietary fiber” is a proxy for unprocessed plant based foods.
M. Pollen said if you track only one nutrient make it fiber, because most sources of fiber are plants.