7 reasons to eat more fibre

When I was a young girl we were all told to eat roughage. Now we are told to eat more fibre. Of course roughage and fibre are one and the same but as with so many words, the name of something changes or it changes its meaning. Take the word 'sick' which to me means that you are unwell but to an entire generation of younger people the word 'sick' means something that is trendy and 'cool'.

Why do health experts tell us to eat more fibre? We are probably all aware of its benefits in reducing our risk of bowel cancer but did you know that it has many other benefits as well? In addition to staving off bowel cancer here are 7 other reasons that you might want to add some more fruit, vegetables and whole grains to your daily diet:

1. It helps to reduce the bad cholesterol in your body. Cholesterol is necessary and we want to have high levels of the good variety and a lot less of the bad variety which can cause heart disease. 
2. It helps with balancing our blood sugar levels. When we eat anything that our body converts into glucose we can get high spikes which are not good for us. Eating fibre helps to prevent (or reduce if you eat a lot of sugar) these high spikes and allows us to use our sugar more slowly.
3. It helps with weight maintenance and can also help with weight reduction. It does this in several ways that involve several processes which I will describe another day.
4. It helps reduce the symptoms of perimenopause and may also help with oestrogen dominance  which can also be an issue in perimenopause. Again this is lots of science for another day.
5. It helps you to feel fuller for longer and you can eat smaller meals because the fibre helps you to feel fuller sooner. All this is also good for weight maintenance.
6. In addition to helping with bowel cancer a diet high in fibre has been shown to reduce the risks of developing other cancers.
7. It can help improve your skin and reduce breakouts. This is because certain types of fibre grab onto yeasts and fungus which helps to move them through the system rather than be excreted through the skin.

So as we can see having more fibre will help us look and feel better.

Enjoy some fresh fruit and veges today

love
Sarah