We've all heard of the importance of having a high-fiber, but do you know why? Fiber is essentially a natural disease fighter in the body, being credited with lowering cholesterol levels and helping to ward off heart disease.

When you eat fatty foods, you're eating cholesterol. It's a fat-soluble item that is usually found in meat and other products made from animals. In the form you eat it, it cannot be eliminated from the body, because it is too hard for the system to break down and move it through. Instead, when you eat cholesterol, your body has to chemically change it into a water-soluble form with the help of the liver which will produce a digestive fluid, know as bile, and then store the broken down cholesterol in the gallbladder.

The bile that has been stored in the gall bladder is now relatively toxic. It's holding on to that broken down cholesterol, histamines from the body and other items that need to be removed from your system. This is where fiber comes in to help out. The fiber will absorb the bile compound and remove it, as well as the broken down cholesterol, from your body in your next bowel movement. This keeps the cholesterol from staying in your body, thus helping you keep a healthy cholesterol level.

In addition to helping on the cholesterol front, fiber will also help defend your body against diabetes. When you eat foods high in fiber, they break down and create sugar gradually. This slow and constant break down, then absorption of sugars by the body, keep your blood sugar levels steady and lessen the change of developing diabetes.

A recent study conducted by members of Tufts University in Boston may have found a link in high-fiber diets and lowering blood pressure as well. They tested a number of people on their blood pressure levels. Then they put some of them on a 6-week high-fiber diet. Those on the diet saw their systolic blood pressure drop by about 7 points. The belief is that since fiber breaks down slowly into sugars for the body, it also controls the insulin levels. Insulin is created in the pancreas when digestion is happening. Fast increases in insulin levels to counter high absorption of sugars in the body can cause blood pressure to go up as well. The slower breakdown of fiber causes both levels to remain steady and healthy.

They key to being a recipient of the benefits of fiber is to make sure there is enough of it in your diet. Take a look at what you eat and make sure there is a large portion of high-fiber foods included. These foods are vegetables such as squash, spinach, broccoli, carrots, brussel sprouts, beans and endive. Fruits are another high fiber source, so add fruits such as grapefruit, oranges, apples, bananas, coconut and pineapple to your diet.