Fibre...
So much more than speedy bowels
A person's 'fibre ' is often described as strength of mind, resolution, character, or moral quality. The kinds of things that give a person substance and fortitude. Oscar Wilde spent days thinking up clever ways of describing and weaving fibre-related nuances into his novels such as, €œ €¦stirred the deeper fibre 's of my nature. € Mmm. (Head nodding.) Deep stuff.
In the next few paragraphs, we shall dig even deeper (literally and €¦literally) and explore an alternate source of substance and strength for your internal integrity. One that is more tangible, equally health-giving, and phenomenally essential: Dietary Fibre. This little enigma consists of the structural cell walls that give plants their integrity.
Fibre is more than just a five-letter word. It glorifies itself as a multifunctional oasis of healing that includes improving and healing digestion, relieving liver and gallbladder strain, reducing your risk of large bowel cancer, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, colitis, haemorrhoids, hernias, and varicose veins, to name a few. And its complexities would shame even the most mysterious of women - soluble, insoluble, lignans, inositol, fructooligosaccharides €¦without proper distinction, its components leaves one totally confused and bereft. Much like a crying woman does to a man. Or one too many hot chillies in last night 's dinner.
Fibre Distinctions
There are three classes of fibre:
- Cellulose or Insoluble
- Soluble
- Lignans
Cellulose fibres are pretty much insoluble in water and tend to bind to water, bulking up the brownies in our gut and giving the intestines a good sweep in the process. Unable to digest the cellulose, we feed instead the beneficial bacteria in our bodies with it, which makes them happy because it 's their preferred food source. As it naturally ferments in our intestines, it subsequently increases the weight of our 'turtle heads ', making them easier to pass. The short-chain fatty acids degraded from the cellulose nourish our intestinal walls. These include proprionic, acetic, and butyric acids. Proprionate and acetate shoot directly for the liver where they inhibit the key enzyme that triggers cholesterol synthesis. Butyrate serves up energy for the colon as its preferred supplier of energy metabolism, and appears to be the main act in fibre 's anti-cancer properties.
Soluble fibres abound aplenty and make up most plant cell walls. These fibre compounds provide us with unending beneficial effects.
- Hemicelluloses: By binding directly to cholesterol in the gut and preventing its absorption, these fibres help to control cholesterol levels as they soften and regulate your internal coco puffs. Those happy bacteria in your tummy completely digest these and so proliferate, increasing your beneficial bacteria ratio. Then your colon uses the short-chain fatty acids for fuel, as mentioned above.
- Gums and Mucilages: Technically, their structural content yields these as hemicelluloses; and, because they are located in the seed portion of the plant (as opposed to the cell walls like everybody else), they get their own fancy names. You can find them in the endosperm inner layer of plant seeds and plant exudates (that refers to the 'gum ' that is exuded on the surface of some plants, such as gum Arabic). Used commercially for stabilising, thickening, and film-forming in foods (think soups, toothpaste, skin cream, etc), gums and mucilages prove to be the most potent of cholesterol-lowering powerhouses. Mucilage fibres reap huge benefits for your blood sugar - they reduce your blood 's fasting and after-meal glucose and insulin levels. They also decrease hunger pangs and body weight, and chelate heavy metals out of your body by wrapping around them and holding tight as you pass them through your personal plumbing.
- Pectins: Found in the skin of fruit and veg along with plant cell walls, their biggest hoo-ha resides with fighting the spread of cancer. Citrus pectin research points to its ability to halt metastasis - the travel of curious cancer cells from one tumour to somewhere else in the body. The galectin protein molecule on the surface of cancer cells allow the seedy cells to clump together and eventually break away to seek new life, new civilisation in you. Citrus pectin binds to the galectins, keeping the adventuresome cancer freaks from clumping. Pectin also lowers cholesterol and bile acids in the gut by leeching onto them and shooing them out with your next stop at the tush pool.
- Algal Polysaccharides: Also known as seaweed gums, alginates form insoluble gels that get used commercially as emulsifiers, thickeners, and binders in food production. Most of your alginates come from brown seaweeds and red seaweeds. They help form smooth textures in foods, provide culture mediums for microbes, and stabilise foods. They giggle at science as some become soluble in hot water, but not cold, as well as breaking down into components that do and do not form gels. Tricky tricky. They too bind cholesterol, delay gastric emptying, and flush toxic metals from The Body.
- Lignans are our last fibre class. They actually represent specific compounds found in high-fibre foods that promote healing characteristics including anti-cancer, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. The lignans in plants do a snazzy hocus pocus routine in your gut with your natural flora - they transform into two protective compounds against cancer called enterolactone and enterodiol. These goodies especially keep in check breast cancer. They do this by binding to estrogen receptors and scrambling the effects of cancer on breast tissue. They also help regulate estrogen levels in the body by nudging them out of the body with a protein bodyguard call SHGB, a sex hormone-binding globulin that lignans promote.
Other Fibre Goodies
- Inositol and Inositol Hexaphosphate (Ip6): An honorary member of the B vitamins, this beauty shows up to the party with her side-kicks of phosphate groups who together regulate cell division. Inositol gets her hands dirty by helping the firing of happy neurotransmitters like serotonin and acetylcholine. Low intake of fibre is associated with depression. Dosages of inositol to depressed patients demonstrate therapeutic results similar to tricyclic antidepressants €¦only without the side effects. Ip6, found in grains and legumes, shouts some impressive antioxidant and anti-tumour fighters. In the plant, it is used to store minerals. Our bodies bind Ip6 to electrolytes (calcium, magnesium, potassium) and form phytates which we find difficult to assimilate because we don 't produce the enzyme phytase, which breaks them down. Assistance comes by way of heat which helps us by destroying the phytates, and yeast which deconstructs them with phytase (think breads, etc).
- Fructooligosaccharides, or FOS: Consisting of short chains of fructose molecules, this is another fibre component that that is only partially digested by us mere mortals. When either of the oligosaccharides are consumed (there also exists galactooligosaccharides or GOS, which contain short chains of galactose molecules), they dish up a luscious buffet for your resident friendly gut bacteria species such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Inulin is a well studied FOS molecule that specifically feeds the good guys and promotes gang wars for the bad guys in your intestines. All three (FOS, GOS, and inulin) contribute to the production of butyrate (described above), increased calcium and magnesium absorption, and stellar removal of toxic substances from your body.
Exit Strategy
The Throne. Such an endearing name for a receptacle that gives you life in exchange for accepting life. If you find yourself constipated, you are literally stealing life from yourself, and that is hardly royal.
You may have heard the term 'transit time ' in the past and considered the local rail schedule. We are talking about a whole other kind of schedule here, and that is your body 's ability to 'factory ' and assembly-line your food - get it in, get what it needs from it, and get it out. The best factories turn over speedy transit times, and so should you.
Eating three meals a day? Then you should be producing three hearty stools a day. Anything less and you are constipated. Fibre decreases your transit time, pushing the rotting, decomposing food out of you and reducing the opportunities for poisons, toxins, and cancer-causing compounds to take hold and penetrating your intestines (and into the bloodstream, and into your cells, and sometimes even through the blood-brain barrier).
Fibre particularly assists in bulking up and softening the lazy King King 's finger making its way through your digestive tract. This is good news, folks - less straining, less pressure to defecate, and avoidance of diverticuli. Diverticuli are sacs or pouches in the intestinal tract caused by stress to the colon wall. They can become clogged with your brown mush matter and initiate an inflammatory response, called diverticulitis. Fibre also helps to prevent its sister conditions, haemorrhoids and varicose veins.
Where to Find Your Fibre
ALL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!
ALL SEEDS AND NUTS, LEGUMES, and SEAWEEDS!
ALL SEEDS AND NUTS, LEGUMES, and SEAWEEDS!
For the obsessed, below are some examples of where specific classes of fibre can be found:
Cellulose
- Wheat Bran
Hemicelluloses
- Oat Bran
- Guar Gum
Gums
- Locust Bean
- Gum Arabic
- Karaya
Mucilages
- Legumes
- Psyllium husks
- Slippery Elm Bark
- Marshmallow Root
Pectin
- Citrus rind
- Apple skin
- Onion skin
Algal Polysaccharides
- Seaweeds
Lignans
- Wheat
- Apples
- Cabbage
- Flaxseeds!!!
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Grains
- Legumes
Inositol
- Grains
- Legumes
FOS and Inulin
- Jerusalem artichokes
- Burdock
- Chicory
- Dandelion Root
- Leeks
- Onions
- Asparagus
GOS
- Soybeans
To find our more about Fibre and to assess how effectively your current intake is helping or hindering your health, contact Lani here or 01202 299923 for a complimentary 20- minute session. Be fully prepared to buy flaxseeds by the end of the conversation!
References:
Starr, Cecie, Evers, Christine A, Starr, Lisa. (2008). Biology: Concepts and Applications. Thomson Brookes Cole. 7th Ed.
Cohen, Barbara. (2005). Memmler 's Human Body in Health and Disease. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Baltimore, Maryland USA. 10th ed.
Murray, Michael and Pizzorno, Joseph and Lara. (23 Dec 2005). The Encyclopaedia of Healing Foods. Atria Books, New York.
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
