Joining the bran wagon

They say that dietary fibre of the kind found in plant foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, wholemeal grains and baked beans (also known as roughage) helps to protect against bowel cancer.

Is that true?

Yes it is. The reason is that these foods remain largely undigested in the gut and therefore add volume to your stools. This effectively gives your bowels a good workout every day, which protects against bowel cancer.

Another benefit of fibre is that it contains no calories but adds volume to your meals. This means that you are less likely to fall prey to fatty and sugary foods, which is good news for dieters.

How much fibre do I need?

Most Brits consume around 12 grams of fibre a day; ideally we should aim for 18 grams minimum.

Where can I find it?

Dietary fibre is found in foods like beans, fruit, vegetables, nuts, wholemeal grains and peas. Conversely it isn’t present in meat, fish, chicken and eggs.

Here are some ideas of how you can get to 18 grams a day quite easily.

1.      Eat All Bran for breakfast: One medium sized bowl contains a whopping 9.6 grams of fibre. That’s half your daily requirement. If you don’t like All Bran, porridge and muesli contain roughly half the amount of fibre, which is still a good start. A similar serving of cornflakes contain 0.2 grams of fibre.

2.      Switch to wholemeal bread: Two slices of wholemeal toast contain 3.5 grams of fibre. Two slices of white toast contain 1.3 grams.

3.      If you have the choice of rice or pasta, go for the pasta: A medium sized portion of white pasta contains 3.8 grams of fibre. The same sized serving of white rice contains 0.2 grams.

4.      The humble baked bean is also a winner in the fibre department. Half a can contains 7.4 grams of fibre. Jacket potato and baked beans is a veritable fibre fiesta.

5.      Pretty much all fruit and vegetables are good: They all tend to come in at around 2 – 3 grams of fibre per serving i.e. a medium sized apple has 2.0 grams of fibre. That’s why five servings a day of fruit and veg. is so important.  

6.      If you feel like snacking on something, but you’re all fruit and veged out, nuts are a pretty good option fibre-wise – particularly almonds.

It’s not that hard to lift your fibre intake by 5 grams a day and the benefits are well worth the effort.