Dr Traj Nibber, CEO and Director of Research at AOR has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of nutritional science and supplementation. We have asked him for his expert opinion on a number of nutrients, to feature in our blog. We hope you enjoy these insights and overviews of some key nutrients.
Here, Dr Nibber looks at the importance of getting enough of the right sort of fibre in your diet.
Fibre is one of the most essential and yet widely deficient, healthy natural ingredients for many of us. Despite the pioneering work of Denis Burkitt in the late 1960’s, most people are still deficient of fibre. Typically, an adult need is around 30g or so of fibre per day. The average intake in the UK is around 17g.
Fibre is an important part of our diet, the recommended daily amount is 30, most UK adults consume on average, 17g a day.
Fibre provides wide variety of health advantages including overcoming constipation, diarrhoea, improving our gut microbiome where favourable bugs are given ammunition to outperform “bad” bugs and develop an environment conducive for good health.
Unfortunately, incorporating fibre in our diet is difficult precisely because we need so much. Unlike vitamins and minerals which are needed in milligram doses, many grams of fibre are needed. Other advantages of fibre include, getting rid of toxins that we get unwittingly from our diet and/or chelating toxins, and carcinogens that are ever present. Finally, fibre guards us against diabetes, heart disease, weight gain and blood pressure which collectively are known as metabolic syndrome. Many studies have shown benefit of fibre in above as well as many other diseases.
A recent invention from Japan has developed fibre into a convenient form which can be taken in any beverage- coffee, tea, water, soups, etc. Solufibre is a soluble form of fibre, that dissolves completely in water within 2 minutes to produce a crystal-clear liquid without any odour or taste. This allows large doses to be taken conveniently and without any bother making it easy to increase the fibre intake of your diet.
You can increase the fibre in your diet by increasing your intake of wholegrains, fruits, vegetables and legumes. You can also top up by using a fibre supplement.
Remember, increase your fibre intake slowly, if you have not previously consumed very much. Also increase your liquid intake so that the fibre has fluid to expand properly.
