Fibre… Bowels of Fun for Everyone!

As a nutritionist I find bowel movements rather interesting. Not because I’m weird but because it can tell me quite a lot about how healthy your diet is and if you are eating well.

Your diet has the power to prevent you from developing a number of chronic diseases. Heart disease, diabetes and cancer are the main ones. In terms of your digestive system, a healthy diet has the ability to help you maintain good digestive function and decrease your risk of diverticular disease and colon cancer.

So what’s the secret to a happy bottom? Fibre! Fibre only comes from plant based foods and is the indigestible part. That means that it goes right through you. You might be thinking, what’s the point if all it does is go in one end and out the other?

Fibre creates a nice bulky stool (poo!) and this helps the body to easily move toxins and carcinogens (cancer causing agents) out of the body. The longer is takes the body to move out the waste products the more time these toxins have in contact with the bowel wall and the more time they have to do damage. A high fibre diet moves undigested food through nice and quickly and thus ensures a healthy gut wall. You should have a B.E.E.P everyday.

The benefits of fibre don’t end there. Fibre also helps reduce cholesterol re-absorption, making it great for reducing your risk of heart disease. High fibre foods help us feel fuller for longer and have low energy density making them perfect for maintaining a healthy weight.

Choose these foods regularly for good digestive health:

Vegetables – Check out this post on how to get more vegetables into your day.
Fruit
Cereal – choose breakfast cereals that have at least 3g of fibre per serve. You can check this information on the nutrition information panel.
Wholemeal Bread – this has twice as much fibre as white bread. Rye Bread and Soy and Linseed are even better.
Wholemeal Pasta
Brown Rice
Legumes – beans, chick peas and lentils
Nuts
Seeds – linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds