High Fibre Diet

Foods in high fibre diet are lower in energy, making them ideal for people who are aiming to lose weight. Fibre has no calories.

• Dietary fibre is the indigestible portion of plant foods that pushes food through the digestive system, absorbing water and easing defecation - final act of digestion by which the organisms eliminate solid or liquid waste material.

• Dietary fibre can be soluble- able to dissolve in water, can not be digested but it does change as it passes through the digestive tract, being transformed by bacteria there and insoluble-not able to dissolve in water, passes through the body largely unchanged.

• You should be consuming between 24-36g of fibre per day. Average British person consumes 12g.

*J.Bill, 'Do Fibre Calories Count?'; Peterson, 'What is Insoluble Fibre?', wisegeek.com.

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Fibre Rich Foods:

• Fruits - apples, pears, peaches, nectarines with skin on, oranges, berries, dried fruits.

• Beans - kidney ,lima, black-eyed beans, chick peas, chana dal and lentils.

• Nuts - almonds, brazil nuts, soy nuts, walnuts, peanuts and peanut butter.

• Flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds.

• Whole meal bread, multi grain bread, rye bread.

• High fibre breakfast cereals - bran, oats, whole wheat.

High Fibre Diet Benefits:

• High fibre foods make you feel full and satisfied longer. They stay in the stomach longer as they are harder to digest. It can help maintaining your healthy body weight.

• One European study found that eating cereals, fruit and vegetables - around 35g a day - can almost halve the risk of bowel cancer. The disease affects 30,000 Britons a year. A second study revealed that the majority of bowel cancer sufferers were also those with the least fibre in their diets. The study concluded that doubling fibre intake can cut bowel cancer risk by 40 per cent. (Daily Mail Online, 'High-fibre diet does beat cancer' article).

• Fiber, with sufficient fluid intake, moves quickly and easily through your digestive system. High fibre diet can help to keep you "regular."

• High fibre diet can decrease your risk of high blood sugar and diabetes, it can also help stabilise blood sugar levels in people who suffer from type 2 diabetes.

Fiber deficiency increases your risk of constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, weight gain, hemorrhoids, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, colon cancer and heart disease and stroke.

Too much fiber too fast can cause cramps, flatulence- gas, bloating and diarrhea. Increase the fibre intake slowly and add a few grams of fibre at a time. And don't forget to increase the fluid intake or you may end up with constipation.

Generally speaking, the more fibre a food contains the lower its glycemic index will be. This is because fibre acts as a physical barrier and slows down the absorption of carbohydrates into the blood.