Why Do I Need Fibre in My Diet and How to Get More?

What’s the Deal with Fibre?

Fibre (also known as roughage) belongs to the plant-based foods that the body isn’t capable of breaking down. It’s an important part of the diet and It provides numerous health benefits to the body including cancer prevention, promotes healthy skin, prevents stroke, gallstones and kidney stones and lowers cholesterol.

Fibre passes through the body undigested, this is the reason why the digestive system is kept clean and healthy. It can also help ease bowel movements and can get rid of cholesterol and harmful carcinogens out of the body.

Most fibre rich foods can be found in plants and it is advisable to choose foods that are unprocessed and natural because these foods contain more fibre. There are 2 types of fibre:

1. Insoluble Fibre doesn’t dissolve in water and is considered as gut-healthy fibre because of its laxative effect. It adds bulk to the diet and prevents constipation. This type of fibre can speed up the passage of food and waste. Insoluble fibre can be found in whole grains, cereals and many vegetables.

2. Soluble Fibre dissolves in water and is helpful in maintaining a healthy blood sugar level and reducing cholesterol. Soluble fibre can be found in beans, nuts, oatmeal, barley and fruits.

One convenient and natural way to get in more of these important fibres - soluble and insoluble fibre is to include baobab powder into your food or smoothies.

Perfect Organic Baobab is all-natural and just like all the Perfect Supplements, it does not contain any nasty fillers, additives, glyphosate, GMOs, synthetic ingredients or added sugars.

6 Top Reasons Why Fibre Is Essential to the Body

It is recommended that Australians must eat approximately 30 grams of fibre per day because most Australians only eat around 20 grams of fibre per day. There is strong evidence indicating that a diet rich in fibre whole grain food can lower the risk of heart problems.

It is important to increase your fibre in every meal to avoid abdominal discomfort and here are the reasons why fibre must be included in your food intake.

Heart Health

Studies show that 5 servings of fruit and vegetables daily may prevent heart disease. There is 40 percent lower risk of cardiovascular problems for those who eat a high fibre diet. Fibre binds with cholesterol during digestion and prevents it from getting absorbed in the arteries. It can help reduce the blood cholesterol levels (especially the bad ones) also known as LDL or low density lipoprotein.

1. Prevent Cancer

Research suggests that eating a high fibre diet can prevent colorectal cancer, although the evidence is not yet conclusive. Food rich in high-fibre is linked to a lower risk for other digestive system cancers such as stomach, mouth and pharynx. Fibre quickly passes through the digestive tract and protects the gut against other forms of cancer. It makes sense when you understand that fibre acts like a broom in your gut, helping to clean your internal house!

2. Healthy Skin

If you want healthy glowing skin, fibre is the natural solution to your skin problem. The food we eat directly affects our skin and fibre is important in getting rid of toxins out of the body. Leafy vegetables bind with cholesterol and its rough texture may rid of the toxic material. Yeast and fungus are excreted through the skin and can be the cause of an acne or outbreak. Again, baobab is wonderful for helping you to achieve healthy, radiant skin. Not only does it contain beneficial, gut-loving prebiotic fibre, but it also contains electrolyte minerals to keep you balanced and antioxidants for keeping you more youthful.

3. Weight Loss

A fibre-rich diet may enhance weight loss and have shown significant improvement especially among obese people. Eating whole grains and consuming more fruits and vegetables will increase feelings of fullness. Therefore, hunger is managed naturally and may prevent unwanted weight gain. Eating grains isn’t for everybody though, if you have a digestive disease such as IBD, IBS or other, you may not be able to digest grains and if you have a candida overgrowth infection then you will probably want to consider seeing an integrative medical practitioner/holistic doctor to set you on the path to clear the candida. Candida infection can cause weight gain and many other health issues (along with leaky gut).

4. Regulates Bowel

Dietary fibre normalises bowel movement by bulking up stools, it relieves constipation, prevents diarrhoea and allows the body waste to pass easily. A fibre rich diet will reduce the risk of diverticulitis (inflammation of the intestine), hemorrhoids, gallstones and kidney stones. It can also provide relief for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD).

If you wish to add more dietary fibre in your diet to avoid constipation all you need to do is follow the tips we have layed out in this detailed article. Be sure to read on...

Tips for Constipation:

• Are you getting enough magnesium in your diet? When we experience lots of stress, we can often become depleted in this vital mineral. Supplementing can be a great idea to replenish and keep our bowels working well. Try Perfect all-natural magnesium here.
• Are you drinking enough water to stay well hydrated? It is easy to forget to drink h20 as we get so busy in our day to day. Try to ensure that the water you're drinking is pure and filtered so that you're not ingesting harmful chemicals.
• Try adding MCT oil to your morning coffee or smoothie? It is known to help with constipation. You can find Perfect Organic MCT oil here.
• I have mentioned baobab a few times now but it needs to be on this list too as it's a great source of bowel-loving fibre.

How to add in Fibre?

1. Add fibre in your diet every morning during breakfast. This could be adding LSA to your muesli, yoghurt or porridge. You may wish to add some fibre to a smoothie (baobab is incredible in smoothies and has a lovely tangy refreshing flavour).
2. Add ground flaxseed to yoghurt It is rich in omega 3 fatty acids and can lower your cholesterol level greatly.
3. Instead of white rice, eat quinoa, brown rice, pearl barley and other whole grain products.
4. Snack on fruits to get more fibre. Fruits such as raspberries, figs, prunes (dried plums), other stone fruits, apples, pears, bananas, avocado and strawberries.
5. Try to keep the skin on the veggies rather than peeling it off as the skin contains vital fibre and also many nutrients. High fibre veggies include artichoke hearts, carrot, potatoes and sweet potato (skin on), broccoli, cauliflower and more! Pretty much all veggies. contain important fibre, you can't really go wrong.
6. Eat more chickpeas. These are a great source of fibre.
7. Oats are a great way to get more fibre into your diet, just be sure to soak them in filtered water overnight to help with digestion and gut health.
8. Speaking of grains, pearl barley is another excellent source of gut-loving fibre. I love to soak it and then cook it the next day. It goes great in slow cooked stews!
9. Seeds an an incredible way to get more fibre in and they often possess hormone-balancing properties. Try chia seeds, flax, sunflower, sesame, hemp and pumpkin seeds. Most of these (except for chia) will need soaking in filtered water too to reduce the anti-nutrients (phytic acid). The anti-nutrients acts as the plants own immune system so they are quite undigestible for our gut and not great for our health either.

However you get it, just get it into your body and your health will no doubt thank you for it!

We hope you enjoyed today's blog and it added some kind of value to your life. If you found it useful, we'd appreciate it that you could please share it with those you know. Knowledge is power and we all have the ability to effect change.

Tam x

*Disclaimer: the information in this article is intended purely as information and not health advice. It is not intended to treat, diagnose, prevent or cure and one should always seek expert advice from their trusted health practitioner.