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Here’s a new reason to eat your beans and greens.

A high-fiber diet may help sweep plastic particles from the gut, researchers report October 15 in Nature Communications . In mice that ingested plastic, eating loads of fiber daily kept the particles from piling up in the intestines. The finding hints at fiber’s power to protect the body from environmental garbage, says Eddy Y. Zeng, an environmental scientist at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.

Researchers have long known that fiber can improve our health, in part by lowering cholesterol, keeping blood sugar levels in check and easing food through the gut. But now, Zeng says, his team’s results suggest an additional benefit.

We live in a world littered with plastic, much of it too small to see.…