Fibre really is your friend — you just have to get to know how it benefits your body (especially digestion and skin health) and learn a few simple fibre food to start eating.
First of all let me explain what fibre is...
Fibre is an indigestible part of all plant foods. It is found in fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. Your digestive system cannot stomach fibre, so it gets excreted undigested. So, you may think you don’t need fibre, because it’s excreted undigested, but that’s not true.
Let's imagine the following picture:
You overeat at least once or twice a week, more often at weekends, and your regular menu doesn't include much fibre. If you relate a little to this lifestyle; you should consider that it may cause you some of health issues like:
- indigestion
- discomfort / stomach aches
- gases in the digestive tract
- constipation
- heamorrhoids
- you're constantly tires
- can't concentrate on what you're doing
I mean you become less productive at work and more irritable at home. Besides all this, you gain weight and that’s the moment when you realise you have a problem.
In order to solve a problem, you should first find the reason for it. In this case it might be the lowered intake of fibre-rich foods and respectively - the higher intake of foods containing no fibre (like meat). The average recommended amount of fibre intake is about 25-30 grams per day. Unfortunately most people's regular diets include less than 10-15 grams daily.
Here's how you could start consuming more fibre-rich foods:
- Wholegrain breakfast cereals, wholewheat pasta, wholegrain bread and oats, barley and rye.
- Fruit such as berries, pears, melon and oranges.
- Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and sweetcorn.
- Peas, beans and pulses.
- Nuts and seeds.
- Potatoes with skin.
The two types of fibre
There are two types of fibre - soluble and insoluble. If you start eating more food rich in fibre, you’ll be amazed by its beneficial effects over your bodyand overall health.
Soluble fibre forms a glue like gel in the intestinal tract. The gel softens stools (no more constipation) and improves your digestion (no more indigestion) and therefore really helps to improve skin health.
Fibre slows down stomach emptying and you feel fuller longer. This effect helps you eat less, your body burns additional calories to digest fibre so it assists with improving metabolism.
Insoluble fibre is an excellent natural laxative, because of its abilities to hold onto water and to push waste faster along the intestines - this way fibre decreases the risk of colon cancer.
Fortunately, as you can see increasing your fibre intake is relatively easy — simply integrate high fibre foods into your diet for improved overall health and radiant skin.