Is my diet as good as I thought?

Following my recent medical interlude, it was recommended that I follow a 'high fibre' diet. My initial response was along the lines of 'how very dare you!!??' & 'do you know who I am?' My diet has been largely compromised of plant-foods for aons & I struggle to imagine eating more vegetables.

However, after some reflection I am being more purposeful in ticking off all the different sources of fibre - which for me has mainly translated into eating more legumes, ideally on a daily basis. And I have to say that it does make a difference to the happiness of my gut, & so I have done a quick refresher on sources of fibre that I thought I'd share with you.

The 6 main types of dietary fibre are as follows:

Pectin: found in citrus peel - back to juicing whole chunks of lemon for me; apples & pears; & berries, as any jam makers will know.

Beta-glucan: so helpful in managing cholesterol levels by binding to dietary cholesterol in the gut. Found in oats & barley, and mushrooms.

Inulin: garlic, onions, leeks for metabolic health and immune system regulation.

Resistant starch: under-ripe bananas, plantain, beans, & cooked & cooled potatoes, pasta, rice, etc.

Cellulose: virtually any fruit or vegetable, but also in flax & hemp, SO LONG as we're consuming the 'woodiest' bits  - the skins, stalks, fibrous bits. All this helps bulk out our stool & keeps things moving along.

Mucilage: anything that goes gooey in liquid or when cooked, like okra, aloe, or chia or flax. This stuff makes the mucus lining of your gut very happy.

Based on the above, if I had only been eating a limited range of fruit & veg (like most of us when we shop the same stuff on repeat), I could have been just feeding just a limited variety of bacteria & missing out on the stuff that supports Akkermansia, for example, which keeps the digestive tract robust and contributes to metabolic health. I could be poo-ing like a champ, but still have a low diversity microbiome!

Further, taking care of the bugs that create butyrate is central to a healthy large intestine. Butyrate is the main food source of our colon cells - a big deal as we're seeing rising levels of colon cancer. 

The main producers of butyrate particularly love resistant starch, inulin and beta-glucans. 

So what might that look like on any given day? 

It doesn't have to be complicated.

You could start with porridge with added berries and ground flaxseed for bonus points. That would provide beta-glucan, pectin, mucilage and cellulose.

Lunch could be lentil soup with wholemeal bread. With onions & garlic in the soup you'd be getting resistant starch & inulin, plus cellulose & potentially beta-glucan depending upon which bread you chose.

If you add some cooked & coolled starch (those aforementioned potatoes, pasta, etc) to dinner, together with onion, leek or garlic and your further choice of bean or legume - which in these summer months could even be houmous, you'll have ticked all the boxes for the day.

Maybe scope then to get creative and also add some kimchi or sauerkraut during the day and really get the party started!

All of this doesn't just contribute to gut health but to improved sleep too, metabolic health, detoxification, hormone & appetite regulation, mood balance, steady energy production, the list goes on.

My homework has been helpful for me, & I hope it is for you too!