The dietary fibre is a type of carbohydrate, which keeps our digestive system healthy and provides lots of health benefits to our body. The presence of dietary fibre makes a food complex to digest, by our digestive system.

Why dietary fibre

As I wrote in previous blog about carbs, we need carbs to keep our body energetic. But, having always simple carbs will make you unhealthy, fatty in long run. Consuming right amount of food with complex carbohydrates os the key in long run. And as I wrote above, having dietary fibre in a food makes that food complex to digest.

Since dietary fibre have low GI (GI of 55, for rolled oats), below are the health benefits;

• Keeping blood sugar stable, which is very important if you are diabetic
• Helps to maintain body weight
• Lowering blood cholesterol
• Keeping you full for long time, when compared to consuming simple carbs, such as – sugar, rice etc.

How does dietary fibre works?

The foods with dietary fibre have low GI (Glycemic Index – to understand what is GI, See section in this blog) and hence, releasing of glucose to bloodstream will be slower – when compared to foods with simple carbs.

Without going much in detail, understand that there’s two types of dietary fibre;

• Soluble fibre – This will slow down the digestion and helps to reduce bad cholesterol (LDL)
• Insoluble fibre – The slowing down of digestion will be overridden by insoluble fobre and helps to get rid of constipation.

Keep in mind that most if the food that has dietary fibre has mixture of both type of dietary fibres. So no need to consume them separately.

Sources of dietary fibre

• Whole grains such as – Rolled oats, Quinoa, Brown rice
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Fresh fruits
• Raw vegetables
• Legumes

Takeaway

• Dietary fibre is a type of carbohydrates, which has lots of positive effects in body
• Food with dietary fibre usually have low GI
• Absence of necessary fibre in your diet will lead to nutritional deficiencies in body over long term
• Dietary helps to maintain the blood sugar levels, bad cholesterol (LDL)
• Whole grains and nuts are the quality source of dietary fibre