Eat More Fiber for a Longer Life

Eating the right kind of fiber lowers the risk of death from multiple causes, reports a new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers from the University of Toronto followed more than 92,924 Japanese people 45 to 74 years old for nearly 20 years and found men that ate higher levels of dietary fiber had a 23 percent reduced risk of death compared to those that ate the least dietary fiber; the figure was 18 percent for women. The more dietary fiber people ate, the less likely they were to die from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases and injuries; it also protected against cancer mortality in men, but not women. Fiber from fruits, beans and vegetables, but not from cereals, was linked to lower mortality.