Up Your Fibre
Who remembers the F-Plan diet?
Back in the ‘80s we had perms and we had the F-Plan diet. Both were very popular.
I recall eating loads of jacket potatoes, AllBran with skimmed milk (yuk) and farting a lot, with very bad hair!
The diet went out of fashion when carb phobia, Atkins and the South beach diets took over.
Our pursuits of the ‘best ‘ diet to achieve a perceived ‘perfect’ weight has led us down the rabbit hole but there is NO PERFECT DIET BOOK or way of eating.
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We are all different. Understanding our bio- individuality is a huge part of how to live a healthy life at a weight that makes you happy and well.
For all of us the message is the same - eat food that is made by nature not made in a factory which can be easier said than done.
This is something I help clients with in my health coaching practice.
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A simple habit that can help your body thrive is make sure you eat enough FIBRE!
The science behind this relates back to our gut microbiome which is made up of trillions of microbes that live in our intestine and as is essential for pretty much every function in our body.
Fibre plays its part in making sure that your microbiome is fed well so that it can support every function in your body from your digestion, hormones, mood and weight management to your immunity.
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The western diet is often hyper palpable, hyper processed and lacking in fibre, and one thing many of have in common is niggles with our digestion such as constipation and bloating often the first sign that our microbiome needs some attention.
Ideally we should have 30 g fiber a day as recommended by govt guidelines to help lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and bowel cancer as part of your diet.
But what does this look like and how can we do this?
If you are not a veggie fan you can try a simple trick or two to increase your fibre.
Make friends with flaxseeds - also known as linseeds. (You can buy these anywhere in packets (link to Linwoods) Add 1 or 2 teaspoons to your porridge, smoothie, overnight oats.
Chia seeds also provide loads of fibre, so add a teaspoon or two as well.
Toast some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan and add them to salads
Don’t peel your root veggies! Hurrah!
Chuck some lentils and chickpeas into your stews and soups
Base every meal around plants and add the protein as a side not the main event.
Switch your rice to wholegrain and crowd out the white stuff.
An apple a day - eat the peel
Raspberries have 8g fibre per cup!
A few nuts every day
A word of caution.
If you have had a diet that is very low of fibre, introduce flaxseed slowly to make sure you don’t get an upset tummy.
Final word: Increasing your fibre and feeding your microbiome means that your poos will be in much better shape!
Ideally we should do a good poo after we have been up for about an hour. We should pass a formed sausage that doesn’t take half a loo roll to clean! In fact the perfect poo hardly needs loo roll at all!