Soy Dietary Fiber Helps Stay Away from Metabolic Diseases

With the continuous improvement of living standards, people's dietary structure and eating habits have undergone tremendous changes. The intake of high-calorie, high-protein, high-fat and refined foods is greatly increased, while the intake of dietary fiber is relatively reduced. Due to neglecting the balance of dietary nutrition, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. are becoming more and more common.

Dietary fiber has many benefits for the human body. It can prevent cancer, control blood sugar, and improve immunity, etc. Famous medical journals call dietary fiber "the longevity nutrient of the human body." The nutritional community recognizes dietary fiber as the seventh category of nutrients, which is on par with the traditional six types of nutrients - protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. Dietary fiber cannot be digested and absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and cannot produce energy, so it was once considered a "non-nutrient substance". However, with the in-depth development of nutrition and related sciences, people have begun to correct their prejudices. Intake of adequate dietary fiber has a certain protective effect on multiple organs of the human body.

Long-term experimental research and clinical data show that one of the risk factors for hypertension, heart disease and arteriosclerosis is hypercholesterolemia. Cholesterol in the blood comes from exogenous intake of food and endogenous synthesis in the body. Its main catabolic pathway is to convert it into cholic acid. Both cholesterol and cholic acid are excreted in the feces. A large number of studies have shown that the excretion of cholesterol and cholic acid is closely related to dietary fiber. The water-soluble dietary fiber in soybeans can significantly reduce blood cholesterol concentration.

Soy dietary fiber can enhance cholesterol metabolism. Soybean dietary fiber can adsorb bile acids secreted by the liver into the intestinal lumen, promote bile acids to be excreted with feces, and reduce the amount of bile acids absorbed by the intestines, thereby hindering the enterohepatic circulation of cholesterol and leading to a decrease in bile acid levels in the liver. In order to maintain the homeostasis of bile acids and cholesterol, the rate of cholesterol metabolism into bile acids is increased, and the rate of cholesterol biosynthesis is also accelerated. This process ultimately results in a decrease in serum and liver cholesterol levels.

Soy dietary fiber can directly reduce the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines. The absorption rate of dietary cholesterol is positively correlated with plasma cholesterol levels. The intake of dietary fiber can decrease the absorption rate of cholesterol, but the amount excreted in the feces increases, which also leads to a decrease in serum cholesterol levels.

Soy dietary fiber can also promote blood lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in the body. During fat metabolism, it can inhibit or delay the absorption of cholesterol and triglycerides in the lymph. This is because fiber not only shortens the time for fat to pass through the intestines, but also adsorbs bile acids and lowers cholesterol and triglycerides. It is related to the solubility of the molecular groups of the ester digestion products. It prevents the transfer of molecular groups to the surface of small intestinal absorptive cells and promotes changes in the physical functions and digestive enzyme secretion functions of small intestinal cells. Therefore, it plays an important role in preventing and improving heart disease and dietary hyperlipidemia caused by coronary artery sclerosis. Soybean dietary fiber, which has the ability to combine with cations, can block the absorption of inorganic salts in the intestines and adsorb sodium salts so that they are excreted with the feces, thereby lowering blood pressure.