Fiber doesn’t often get mentioned when talking about the best diet for healthy hair, but make no mistake, high fiber foods are a great choice when hair health is a priority because this carbohydrate helps fight hair loss, reduce the chances of dandruff, and even helps regulate sebum production which causes oily hair.
Your body doesn’t “use” fiber like it uses other nutrients because it can’t breakdown the fiber like other carbohydrates, so fiber passes through your body undigested. This helps delay post meal sugar rushes, helps you feel full longer, and helps your body maintain a healthy gut, all of which is good news for your hair. High fiber means lower inflammation, and lower inflammation means less chance of male and female pattern hair loss according to this study.
Getting more fiber will also help if you struggle with oily hair because, as this study noted, by slowing down post meal sugar rushes, your body won’t be so eager to pump out excess sebum. And sebum is the culprit responsible for oily hair (and also acne). Plus, with lower inflammation and without excess sebum, fiber helps reduce your chances of suffering from itchy dandruff.
Given all these great benefits for your hair, you’d think everyone would be fawning over fiber at every meal, but only about 5% of adults get their fill of fiber each day. And this has decreased with the rise of gluten-free, grain-free, and other fad diets.
The USDA recommends 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories you eat. Fortunately, it is easy to find fiber rich foods to incorporate into your diet including lima beans and lentils at dinner in a soup or spread on bread, grapefruits and guava at breakfast or in a smoothie as a snack, and spinach or sweet potatoes as a side at lunch. But be careful with supplements since many not provide a physical benefit.
If you want to use supplements as part of your diet, talk to a medical professional about your goals and they can recommend the right type of fiber supplement from a reputable brand with clinical data to back up their claims.
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