How would you like to lose weight, improve your health, and reduce your risk of developing life-threatening disease without worrying about calories or increasing exercise?
What's the secret?
We have been told for decades that calories in versus calories out determines whether we gain, lose or maintain our weight. Eat more calories than you use and you will put on weight. And the only way to lose weight is to put consume less calories than you expend. Seems logical, right?
New science is telling us different. Not all calories are equal and our bodies deal with different foods in different ways. And one particular group of foods really can help us lose weight without changing our calorie equation. In fact, this food has so many health-giving benefits we should all be going crazy for it.
Fabulous Fibre is our secret friend. Unfortunately, most of us are eating far too little. Which is crazy when you see what it can do for you.
How is Fibre different?
We cannot digest most fibre in our food, so it reaches the large intestine relatively relatively unchanged. Our friendly bacteria, living in our gut love this food and can get lots of nutrients from it. This helps them proliferate and crowd out the 'bad bacteria' which cause us harm. This helps reduce gut inflammation and digestive disorders like bloating, IBS, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
How about the weight loss? It is still a bit of a mystery how it works, but studies have shown that just increasing the amount of fibre in your diet, without changing anything else, can help you lose weight.
A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that something as simple as aiming to eat 30 grams of fiber each day can help you lose weight, lower your blood pressure, and improve your body’s response to insulin just as effectively as a more complicated diet. (Harvard Health Blog)
Even better, it's believed that a fibre-rich diet helps you live longer with a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and many cancers.
How to increase your daily fibre
The recommendation is to get about 30g of fibre into your body each day - most of us get less than half that. That means eating up your fruits and veggies, plus adding in some wholegrains, nuts and other fibre-rich foods.
F is for.....
The one downside, short-lived but embarrassing, is that when the bacteria ferment the fibre, they also produce gases. This is why high-fibre diets can cause flatulence and stomach discomfort in some people. These side effects usually go away with time as your body adjusts so start slowly and build up your fibre intake. Or blame the dog!