30 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Diet Fibre | Amazing Facts 4U
- Fibre is a non-digestible, plant-derived carbohydrate that includes the storage and cell wall parts of the plant. Fibre is referred to as “nature’s broom” because it helps “clean out” the intestinal tract.
- Amazingly fibre is found only in plant foods. Meat and dairy products have no fibre.
- Amazingly fibre passes through the human digestive tract essentially intact without digestion or metabolism and has little to no caloric value. However, it provides a “time-release” of vitamins, minerals, fats, and sugars during digestion, which help optimize their metabolism.
- The “Father of Medicine,” Hippocrates (4th century B.C.) was one of the first physicians to argue for the benefits of fibre in the form bran to help keep the large intestine healthy.
- It has been noted that the emergence of common diseases occurred in the U.S. and England after 1890, when a new milling technique removed fibre from whole-grain flour to produce white flour.
- 100 years ago, meat, fat, and sugar between them contributed only 15% of the total number of calories in an average diet. The figure now is about 60%. The quantity of fibre has dropped an amazing 90%.
- In fact, the most common abdominal emergency in the West is appendicitis. In USA about 3,00,000 such surgeries are done every year. A low-fibre diet increases the risk of appendicitis.
- There are two types of fibre both essential for us namely soluble fibre, which dissolves in water, and insoluble fibre, which does not dissolve in water. They are naturally found in plant foods such as beans, seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
- Most people only eat about 15 grams of fibre a day but recommended amount is about 20-35 grams per day.
- The National Cancer institute concludes that for every 10-gram increase in fibre intake, risk of death drops 15% in women and 10% in men.
- Too much fiber can also cause negative health effects especially when fiber intake is more than 50 grams per day leading to diarrhoea and bloating, which can interfere with the body’s absorption of other minerals.
- For a food to be a “Good Source” fibre means that it has to have at least 3 grams of fibre per serving. An “Excellent Source” of fibre means it has to have at least 5 grams of fibre per serving.
- The more fibre a person includes in his or her diet, the more water he or she will need to keep the fibre moving through the digestive tract.
- Fibre can help with overeating. Fibre takes longer to chew, which gives the body time to let a person know when he or she is full. Research shows that eating an additional 14 grams of fibre each day resulted in a 10% decrease in calorie intake.
- Insoluble fibre (“roughage” fibre) acts like a sponge, capable of absorbing up to 15 times its own weight in water and making a person feel full longer.
- Insoluble fibre attaches to waste in the body, which makes waste bulkier and easier to pass which can prevent haemorrhoids, and some types of cancer.
- Insoluble sources of fibre include fruits with skins, uncooked vegetables, nuts, legumes, bran, brown rice, and whole-grain flour.
- Grains offer the most fibre. The best sources are whole grains and concentrated grain products. Choosing 100% whole-grain bread for a sandwich can add 3-5 grams of fibre per serving. Whole wheat has nearly four times the fibre component of brown rice.
- Soluble fibre in fact slows down the absorption of sugar and fats in the blood, which helps regulate blood sugar levels.
- Soluble fibre binds with and removes cholesterol from the blood stream, which helps lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol.
- Common sources of soluble fibre include oats, oat bran, barley, dried beans, peas, and certain fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, apples, potatoes and citrus.
- Many types of soluble fibre can act as prebiotics that feed healthy gut bacteria which, in turn, contributes to colon health.
- Cooking does not remove the fibre from food. Additionally, drying food also does not remove fibre from food.
- Lentils 1 cup provides about 15 gm of fibre. 1 cup of peas will provide about 9 gm.
- 1 cup of raspberries can provide about 8 gm fibre. 1 whole pear gives about 5.5 gm. Medium apple, 1 cup of carrot or 1 cup of spinach has about 4.5 gm fibre.
- Research shows that fibre can lower the risk of prostate cancer progression and decrease levels of testosterone, which helps decrease tumour growth. If people doubled their fibre intake, they could lower their risk of colon cancer by 40%.
- Foods rich in fibre help prevent diverticulosis, which is the formation of intestinal pouches. Fibre contributes to the bulk of stool in the colon, which means less forceful contractions are needed to move the stool and intestinal pouches aren’t so readily formed.
- The average amount of time it takes food to travel through the body in a healthy adult is about 3 days. For someone who is constipated, it’s 10 days. In the elderly, it may take 2 weeks.
- In countries where fibre content is high, such as in many third-world countries, food will take only 1½ days to travel through the body. The longer it takes for stools to pass through the bowel, the higher the risk for developing gastrointestinal diseases, such as diverticular disease, ulcers, and colon cancer.
- Fruit and vegetable juices have hardly any fibre because the skin is removed to make the juice. It is more healthful to eat whole fruit and vegetables than to drink fruit and vegetable juices.
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