Why are dietary fibers important?

The definition of dietary fibre is: “the edible part of plants or analogous carbohydrates that are resistant to digestion and absorption in the human small intestine with complete or partial fermentation in the large intestine.”

In other words, dietary fibre is the part of vegetables that we do not digest, although it is essential when it comes to reducing the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, intestinal permeability or diverticulitis. It is also the nutritional cornerstone when it comes to establishing therapy to reverse these. To eliminate toxins from the body or purify it a high fibre diet is indispensable.

So far it is clear that it is very important to choose high fibre food products to improve our health. The question that you are definitely asking yourself now is how much fibre should you consume, the answer is about 30g a day. Of course, when fibre is consumed, plenty of liquids are also required, such as soups or herbal teas.

Here below is some advice that might make it easier for you to increase your fibre intake and improve your health:

• Try and eat vegetables in all your meals, both cooked and raw. And don’t forget that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, so eating some local seasonal fruit will definitely do you some good. To give you an idea, have an apple mid-morning, a salad at lunchtime together with the vegetables included in the main course and make sure that you have a nice plate of seasonal vegetables for dinner. You can steam, sauté or blanch them. The trick is to add a few fresh herbs and condiments so that they taste delicious.
• Pulses are essential too for a cardio-healthy diet. And that is not so difficult to imagine, seeing as the majority of cultures and seasons of the year have recipes with this delicious and versatile ingredient. You should eat pulses 4 or 5 times a week. You can include them in stews, with beansprouts, salads, vegetarian pâtés, appetizers…
• When it comes to preparing light snacks don’t forget that seeds, dried fruit and nuts are an excellent source of fibre and omega 3 fatty acids.
• Avoid eating refined grains. All the fibre has been removed from these, so that they cook quicker, but the advantages of using whole grains that have all their fibre content are unbeatable. Nowadays quinoa is very popular, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that there are other delicious cereals too such as brown rice, millet, sorghum, amaranth, spelt, kamut, wheat, rye or barely (the latter contain gluten, just in case you have celiac disease).
• If you buy processed food check the nutritional label, the amount of fibre per portion must be at least, 5 grams.