Health Benefits of a High Fibre Diet
By Mark on Feb 26, 2008 in Featured Previously
Why opt for a high fibre diet ?
Fibre is a very key component to any healthy eating plan and or diet, also known in language terms as “roughage” it is responsible for general overall health, without fibre in your diet you may end up with poor digestion, stomach problems, and other ailments.
Fibre is a carbohydrate which we are unable to break down quickly in our stomachs, this serves the purpose of pushing food more quickly through our digestive tract and eliminating waste far more effectively.
Otherwise undigested food can reside in your stomach and will just sit and rot inside your stomach releasing toxins into your body.
How it helps to lose weight
This type of food takes longer to chew in your mouth so you won’t eat as much, when fibre reaches your stomach it acts like a sponge soaking up water, also it takes longer to break down than most other foods, this will give you a feeling of satisfaction and fullness, for a longer period of time this will help conquer cravings. A lot of fibre contains very few calories.
What are the health benefits ?
Because of the very effective elimination characteristics of it, it can help prevent such diseases as bowel cancer, piles, stop constipation which quite a lot of people suffer with, improve overall digestion, in less civilised countries where their diets are high in fibre they tend to have less diseases than their western counterparts have.
Fibre tends to be very low in fat but can help prevent cardiovascular disease which is brought on by hardening of the arteries when fat consumption is high in your diet. Fibre tends to be a good source of vitamins and minerals which is essential for correct body functioning, and also helps prevent cravings.
The best sources of fibre are ?
Wholegrain foods such as wholegrain breads ones that tend to have about four to 5 g per slice is ideal, others include muesli, Weetabix, Shredded wheat, baked beans, wholemeal pasta, Brown rice, porridge or oatmeal as its otherwise known as, dried fruits, nuts.
Best vegetable sources are:
Asparagus
Broccoli
Turnips
Jacket potato with skin
Sweet potatoes
Greenpeas
Carrots
Cauliflower
And spinach
Best fruit sources are:
Apples
Bananas
Blueberries
Pears
Strawberries
Raisins
And oranges
How much am I supposed to eat ?
The recommended guidelines are that you’re supposed to eat between 10 to 25 g of fibre per day I dare say that most of us don’t come anywhere near this figure, just recently in a tabloid newspaper it was quoted that Britons still don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables in their diet.
Studies around fibre
Fibre can be very good for your heart several studies in various countries have shown that eating a high fibre diet is a significant player, in lowering bad cholesterol the sort of fibre known as the soluble type has cholesterol-lowering properties.
The particular countries where the studies were done, their rate of coronary heart disease was a lot lower than those countries who ate less fibre.
The two types of fibre
The two types of fibre are insoluble and soluble soluble fibre tends to bind itself to cholesterol molecules and flushes it out of your body if there is any present think of it as a sponge soaking up all the bad cholesterol in your body.
Insoluble fibre on the other hand serves a different purpose this is purely for pushing food through your body very quickly, and keeping your digestive system functioning correctly this will help and stop problems, such as stomach cancers, bowel cancers and also stop you from being constipated as well.
Are there any problems with a high fibre diet ?
Not really know although some people do say that when they changeover to a higher fibre diet it can cause them to suffer from flatulence, but based on mine and a lot of other people’s experiences, this tends to be a short-term thing rather than rather than a long-term thing. So as we can see there are more pros and hardly any cons to having a nutritious high fibre diet.
So get eating those high fibre fruit and vegetables.
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Tags: fibre, weight







4 Comment(s)
By sparks on Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
I noticed a huge difference when I started to drink more water and eat more fiber. Lost more weight through these two things (and some good old exercise) than any of these ‘faddy’ diets.
Nice blog. I’ll be back.
By renee wise on May 3, 2008 | Reply
I suffered from abdominal pain, cramping, and constipation as well as a lot of other issues. I went from doctor to doctor. I eat very healthy and get a lot of fiber from all sources. I was a big fan of whole wheat. Then I read a book, The Gluten Connction. I took all gluten out of my diet and I have started to feel well for the first time in years. I now eat a lot of grains that are very nutritious and high in fiber. I thought you might be interested in trying these. Teff, Quinoa, Amaranth. I buy these in the Health Food section at my local Kroger. You can read about them on line. The Quinoa is the only grain that has complete protein. It has six grams of protein and six grams of fiber for a quarter cup dry. Teff is my favorite. I put natural peanut butter, blueberries, pumpkin all or one of these ingredients in these wonderful grains. You can also whip an egg with some water and add it to the cereal for extra protein. You don’t taste the egg, just sweeten as usual. I use stevia. I also buy the flours from these grains and make waffles daily. This is how I get a lot of my fiber along with all kinds of healthy fruits and vegetables. I love to cook and play in the kitchen. People feel sorry for me because I can’t eat food everyone else is eating but when you lose the pain you don’t care. Just wanted to share my experience with fiber. Let’s not forget about Flaxseed another ingredient I had to my food.
By Experience diet diary on May 5, 2008 | Reply
I’m from Japan.
Glad to meet you.
Please link to this site.
Keep it up please
Experience diet diarys last blog post..Apples_diet
By Laura on Jun 20, 2008 | Reply
Good post, this is really interesting. Fibre is especially useful for maintaining blood glucose levels… There’s also some good information at:
http://www.foodeu.com/articles/High+Fibre+Assisting+Weight+Loss.aspx