Is Dietary Fibre Essential For A Healthy Diet?
You’re not eating enough fibre! Eat more fibre!
These are words you must have probably heard at some point in your lives. Have you ever wondered why everybody talks about eating fibre?
This blog has the answer to that question.
Dietary fibre, commonly found in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, is also called roughage. Typically, it is the indigestible part of plant-based foods. When people widely talk about how important it is to add fibre to your diet it stems from its numerous health benefits. The most common benefits are prevention from constipation and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease among others.
What is Dietary Fibre?
Dietary fibre, or what people commonly call roughage, includes those indigestible parts of plant-based foods. Your body can easily break down and absorb other food components such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and others. However, your body cannot digest fibre. Instead, fibre mostly passes out of your body through the stomach, intestines, and finally the colon, almost intact.
There are two types of fibres that are important for your health:
Soluble Fibre - It absorbs water to form a gel-like substance. Soluble fibre is most beneficial for lowering cholesterol levels and regulating blood sugar levels. Oats, beans, carrots, and citrus fruits are some common sources of soluble fibre.
Insoluble Fibre
It primarily prevents constipation by adding bulk and roughage to the stool since it is not soluble in water. Insoluble fibre helps the movement of food through the digestive system. It is best for people who frequently suffer from constipation. Whole-wheat flours, cauliflower, potatoes, and nuts, are excellent sources of this fibre.
Now that you know about the types of fibre and the purpose they serve, here is a list of reasons why dietary fibre is essential for a healthy diet.
Benefits of Dietary Fibre in Daily Diet
Dietary fibre is crucial to a healthy diet. It is an essential component that helps your gut health while also reducing the risk of chronic health issues.
If you are not consuming enough fibre in your daily diet, you are missing out on a lot of benefits. One easy way to supplement your body’s dietary fibre needs is Vestige’s Dietary Fibre which is a quick way to get that fibre in your system. Here are some health benefits of dietary fibre to motivate you to make it an unmissable component of your diet.
Achieve Healthy Weight
Adding dietary fibre to your diet is an excellent way to help you lose weight. Since fibre-rich foods tend to make you feel full faster than foods with low fibre content, you tend to eat less. It also makes you feel satisfied for a longer time.
Besides, fibre-rich food takes a little longer to eat. It is not as “energy dense” as other food components, implying that it has fewer calories than other foods of the same volume. Dietary fibre also helps adhere to a strict dietary calorie restriction.
Improves Gut Health
Your body has almost 500 to 1000 kinds of bacteria in the large intestine, the gut. These are known as the good bacteria that live in the digestive system and play a very important role in digestion.
Most proteins, carbs, and other food components are usually absorbed in the bloodstream by the time they reach the large intestine. There isn’t much left for the good bacteria. Dietary fibre, on the other hand, reaches the intestine almost unchanged since it is not digested by the enzymes in the stomach.
The bacteria in the intestine have the enzymes to digest fibre and feed on it. Enough dietary fibre in the daily diet helps in the prevention of constipation by allowing waste to move through the body smoothly. It also prevents other gastrointestinal disorders such as hemorrhoids, colorectal ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux, and more.
Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Dietary fibre, especially soluble fibre is known to be beneficial in preventing diabetes. Fibre helps prevent blood sugar spikes, especially after meals since it considerably slows down the absorption of sugar in the body.
An insoluble fibre-rich diet is also helpful in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Fibre controls blood sugar levels, enables a healthy gut, and lowers inflammation in the body, which helps keep diabetes at bay.
Protects Against Heart Disease
There is a direct relation between a high-fibre diet and the reduced risk of heart disease and cholesterol. Dietary fibre absorbs all the excess cholesterol from your system and your body disposes of it through the colon. Thus, preventing it from clogging your arteries, and consequently reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease or a stroke. Soluble fibres, specifically help in protecting against heart disease.
Eases Regular Bowel Movement
Essentially, dietary fibre helps your stool by increasing its weight, and size, and softens it as well. Bulky stool passes easily thus decreasing the chance of being constipated. If you experience watery or loose stool, fibre helps to solidify it as it absorbs water while also adding bulk to it.
Maintains Bowel Health
High dietary fibre diets are known to reduce the risk of hemorrhoids in addition to diverticular disease. Furthermore, dietary fibre also reduces the risk of colorectal cancer.
Tips to Add More Dietary Fibre to Your Diet
A diet is healthy only if it has the right composition and the right components in the right proportion.
If you want to add more dietary fibre to your diet but are unsure about how to do it, here are some tips to get you started:
Have a high-fibre breakfast such as cereals that are whole grain or bran.
Use whole-grain flour instead of all-purpose flour when baking.
Add a lot of beans, lentils, and kidney beans to your diet.
Consume more vegetables and fruits that are rich in dietary fibre.
Consume ready-to-consume dietary fibre supplements such as Vestige’s dietary fibre.
Consciously choose whole-wheat bread instead of all-purpose flour bread.
Popcorn is a great and tasty way to add fibre to your diet since it is a whole grain.
Add dry fruits to cereals and yogurt to get that extra fibre.
Conclusion
Dietary fibre is very good for your health and you must consciously add it to your diet to enjoy its benefits. If you are just starting out, gradually incorporate fibre into your diet so it does not get too heavy for your body.
Also, remember to drink lots of water when you consume high amounts of dietary fibre. Your system needs water since fibre absorbs water to function well.
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