If you are like most Americans, you probably don’t get enough fiber in your diet. A mere 7 percent of Americans eat enough fiber.
“There’s really an epidemic of fiber deficiency,” says Michael Greger, the physician behind nutritionfacts.org and author of the forthcoming book How Not to Age.
Fiber is the part of plant foods your body can’t digest. And even though your body can’t absorb it, it plays a critical role in your health.
This is especially true for people over age 50. Most people know that older adults are more prone to constipation, which can be prevented by eating more fiber. But the stomachs of older adults also produce less acid, and the intestines may start to have a harder time moving food through, which can affect nutrient absorption, says Michelle Kwan, a research assistant at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and coauthor of a 2021 paper “Healthy Diet for Healthy Aging” in the journal Nutrients. “Consuming an adequate amount of fiber can help compensate for these changes,” she says.
But fiber does so much more than support healthy digestion.
It can help you live longer. Really. A 2015 analysis in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people eating high-fiber diets had a significantly lower risk of death — from all causes.
It also can help you age better. Regularly eating a high-fiber diet has been linked to successful aging — defined as a lack of memory problems, disability, depression and chronic diseases, according to a 10-year study of more than 1,600 participants published in the Journal of Gerontology in 2016. It’s even associated with less damage to white matter in the brain, which can affect memory and balance as you age.
Lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and inflammation, as well as lowered risk of heart disease, diabetes, depression, stroke and possibly colorectal cancer are all also linked with a high-fiber diet.
There’s one more benefit: It can help manage weight. In fact, a lack of fiber may be one of the biggest hurdles to losing weight, according to The Whole Body Reset by AARP editor Stephen Perrine. That’s because fiber can block calorie absorption and help you feel full longer.
The average amount of fiber older adults eat is just 16.1 grams, Kwan says. Here’s how much should you be eating:
- Men over age 50: 30 grams/day
- Women over age 50: 21 grams/day
Part of the challenge is that appetites tend to decrease with age. But an even bigger cause is that the American diet is heavy on meat and dairy, which have no fiber, and refined flours, which have minimal fiber.
