Fibre

Dietary fibre helps keep our digestive tract in good working order and is particularly important in helping to ease constipation, especially in the later stages of pregnancy as the pressure of a close to full term baby on the bowel makes the intestinal muscles sluggish.

What is fibre?

Despite the fact that it passes through the digestive tract largely untouched, fibre plays an important role in helping us stay fit and healthy.

The term fibre or roughage, as it used to be known, describes not just one, but a number of compounds, all of which are found in plant-based foods such as cereals, fruit and vegetables, beans and pulses.

Fibres can be divided into two groups - insoluble and soluble. Both groups help keep the body healthy in a different way.

Insoluble fibre, which is found mainly in wholegrain cereals but also in fruit and vegetables and pulses, helps prevent constipation and related problems such as haemorrhoids (piles) and diverticular disease. It works by absorbing water making the stools larger, softer and easier to pass.

Sometimes referred to as ‘nature’s broom’, insoluble fibre also speeds the passage of waste material through the body. The quicker waste materials are excreted the less time potentially harmful substances have to linger in the bowel.

Soluble fibre, found in oats and oat bran, beans and pulses and some fruit and vegetables, helps to lower high blood cholesterol levels and slows the absorption of sugar into the blood stream.

The Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) for fibre is 25g for adults and 15g for children aged between 5-10 years. Most of us need to increase our current fibre intake by about 50% in order to reach this target.

1 bowl (30g) of Kellogg's Bran Flakes provides 4.5g fibre which is 18% of the GDA for an adult.