Nutrition 101– Fibre
Nutritionists tend to throw terms like ‘carbs’, ‘vitamins’
and ‘minerals’ around like everyone knows what they are. But
many people, if asked, couldn’t actually tell you what a vitamin
is, or why your body needs them. Yes, organic food usually contains more
vitamins and minerals, but what does this actually mean for your health?
Well, welcome to this series of explanations of the most used nutritional
terms – what they are, what they do, and how to get them. This month:
Fibre
Your Granny knew the importance of staying ‘regular’, and
fibre’s the key. A mountain of research has now shown that Granny
was right - we’d all be a great deal healthier and live longer if
we ate coarser diets that sent more indigestible dietary fibre through
our digestive tracts. Fibre absorbs liquids, increases the bulk of faecal
mass and encourages the muscular walls of the colon to work more. This
decreases the amount of time that food waste spends in your colon and
reduces the risk of toxins being re-absorbed into your body as that waste
degrades. Fibre therefore clearly prevents constipation, but may also
protect against diverticulosis, spastic colon, hemorrhoids, and cancer
of the colon.
But fibre does so much more than just providing bulk through your digestive
tract. A nutritional superstar, there are different kinds of fibre including
cellulose, hemicellulose, gums, pectin, and lignins. These different kinds
of fibre can decrease fat absorption, lower cholesterol levels by helping
your body get rid of it in the faeces, carry excess hormones and toxins
out of your body, slow sugar absorption after a meal providing longer
lasting energy from your meals, improve the balance of beneficial bacteria
in your intestines, and even help prevent tooth decay. Lack of fibre is
associated with an increase in constipation, acne, appendicitis, cancer
of the colon, and possibly other diseases.
The best way to increase your fibre intake is to eat more wholegrains
(e.g. wholegrain bread, brown rice, rolled oats for breakfast), raw fruit,
vegetables, lentils and beans. Avoid refined grains like white bread,
pasta and rice, as during the refining process they’ve had almost
all of the fibre removed, along with most of the vitamins and minerals.
While it’s true that most of us still don’t have enough fibre
in our diet, too much can cause gas, bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea,
and possibly interfere with your body’s absorption of zinc, calcium,
iron, magnesium and vitamin B12. For this reason I don’t recommend
eating brans to get your fibre, and really there’s no need if you
eat whole foods and plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Fibre and organic food
Organic produce has been shown to contain around 20 percent more ‘dry-matter’
than conventional produce, so could be said to contain more fibre weight-for-weight.
But I think the real benefit is that going organic helps people eat more
fruit and vegetables in general, whether due to the better taste or an
improved health awareness. And eating more fruit and vegetables brings
a raft of health benefits, including more fibre in your diet.
Wishing you the best of health,
Shane Heaton
Nutritionist
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