Fibre is essential to maintain optimum health;
it keeps the bowels open and prevents constipation, ideally, you should
evacuate the waste food from your system at least once a day, but not
more than once every twelve hours. Yet most people do not know what
fibre is never mind its importance and benefits.
Fibre is sometimes called roughage, and it means a variety of carbohydrates
that are not digested, absorbed or used by the body to rebuild body
tissue or for energy production. If you have not been eating sufficient
fibre increase the fibre content slowly, but surely, a large hike
in fibre content can give you wind and or stomach pain, as your digestive
system is not used to it. Never add fibre without adding a few glasses
of water a day. Fibre is always plant based meat fish and animal products
have no fibre content whatsoever.
Add fibre by:
Eating fresh fruit and Vegetables.
Add lentils to soups, even if the lentils are canned and precooked.
Eat brown rice and pasta, and brown bread with whole cereals.
Fibre is not inert, fibre is complex carbohydrates and natural polymers
such as cellulose and woody plant lignin, various gums such a sugar,
Arabic, agar, carageen and psyllium, and husks are all examples of
fibre in a soluble or insoluble form.
Wheat bran is an insoluble form, which does not absorb cholesterol
easily any form of oats is an excellent source of insoluble fibre,
whilst wheat bran is a good stool softener. Insoluble fibres make
stools heavier and this accelerates their passage through the gut.
The stools absorb many times their own weight in water, and this assists
in elimination. Wheat bran, whole grains, fruit and vegetable skins,
and seeds, are rich sources of insoluble fibre.
Soluble fibre includes the pectin, and gums some hemicelluloses and
other compounds found in oats, legumes such as peas, kidney beans,
lentils, some seeds, brown rice, barley, oats, and fruits such as
apples, broccoli and potatoes. Soluble fibre breaks down as it passes
though the digestive tract, forming a gel, which traps some substances
of high cholesterol and prevents them from being absorbed into the
blood stream.
According to current guidelines, healthy adults should consume 25
to 35 grams daily, but the body needs both soluble and insoluble fibre
eating, one type of fibre rich food is not sufficient. It is normal
to feel bloated when you first increase fibre to healthy limits and
this feeling of bloatedness deters people from continuing. Yet the
affect is only temporary it is the effect of making stools heavier
and the gas, these symptoms will usually subside in weeks.
Eating 26 grams of fibre sounds mega, but it can be achieved by having
banana and raisins with whole grain cereal at breakfast, fruit as
an afternoon snack and five servings of vegetables daily, plus several
two servings of wheat pasta or whole wheat bread. That is all that
it takes to increase your fibre and make yourself healthier.
