Despite the growing focus on gut health in recent years, the role of fibre in supporting a healthy gut microbiome has surprisingly received little attention. Fibre plays a crucial role in keeping your digestive system functioning smoothly, promoting the growth of healthy gut bacteria, and offering a wide range of additional health benefits. In this article, we'll explore the importance of dietary fibre for gut health and share practical tips on how to incorporate more of it into your daily diet for overall wellbeing.
What is Dietary Fibre?
Dietary fibre is actually a type of carbohydrate found in plant-based foods that your body can’t fully digest (don’t worry, this is a good thing!). Instead of being broken down and absorbed like other nutrients, fibre passes through your digestive system and has a number of critical functions along the way.
There are two main types of dietary fibre:
- Soluble fibre
- Dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance.
- Found in foods such as oats, carrots, apples, barley, flaxseeds and psyllium husk.
- Its main role is to help lower cholesterol, stabilise blood sugar levels, and feed beneficial gut bacteria.
- Insoluble fibre
- Doesn’t dissolve in water.
- Found in whole grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables such as cauliflower and celery.
- Its main role is to add bulk to stool for ease of passing, aid regular bowel movements, and prevent constipation.
Fibre for Digestion: A Gut-Friendly Nutrient
Fibre is like a personal trainer for your digestion system, ensuring everything moves along at the right pace and keeps your gut microbiome thriving. Here’s a couple of ways fibre does this:
- Promotes Bowel Regularity: Insoluble fibre reduces the incidence of constipation by increasing stool bulk, making stools easier to pass.
- Supports a Balanced Gut Microbiome: Soluble fibre, on the other hand, acts as food for the beneficial bacteria in your gut, encouraging healthy populations that help to suppress harmful bacteria. These beneficial bacteria also produce short-chain fatty acids, which help maintain gut health, reduce gastrointestinal inflammation, and even support your immune function.1
Fibre and Weight Management: Feel Full, Snack Less
If you've ever heard that fibre helps you feel fuller for longer, it's absolutely true! Fibre slows digestion, increasing the feeling of fullness and reducing hunger, which can help prevent overeating. If you're working towards weight loss goals, increasing your fibre intake can support easier weight management, with the added benefit of improved gut health.
Other Health Benefits of Fibre
Fibre doesn't just improve digestion and support weight management—it offers a range of additional health benefits. Here are more reasons to increase your dietary fibre intake and consider a fibre supplement:
- Lowers cholesterol: Soluble fibres such as pectin, psyllium and guar gum bind to cholesterol in the digestive tract, helping to reduce LDL cholesterol levels.2
- Stabilises blood sugar: By slowing the absorption of dietary sugar, fibre helps to prevent spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels.
- Supports cardiovascular health: Diets high in fibre are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.
- Promotes longevity: Studies show that people with high-fibre diets often live longer, healthier lives.3
How Much Fibre Do You Need?
The recommended daily fibre intake for adults is4:
- 25 grams for women
- 30 grams for men
Unfortunately, most people fall short of these targets–with only 7% of Australian adults meeting their adequate intake for fibre.5 The good news is that with small, manageable tweaks to your diet, you can easily boost your fibre intake.
Tips to Gradually Increase Your Fibre Intake
Sudden increases in fibre may lead to digestive upset, including bloating and gas. Don’t let this put you off–there’s an easy way to transition to a high fibre diet:
- Go slow: Add a small serve of fibre to your diet every day and slowly increase over weeks. The same goes for fibre supplements–start at half the recommended dose and increase over weeks.
- Stay hydrated: Fibre works best with adequate hydration.
- Mix it up: Get a balanced mix of soluble and insoluble fibre from a range of sources.
High Fibre Foods to Add to Your Diet
Make your plate colourful with a diverse range of these fibre-rich options:
- Fruits: Apples, pears, berries, oranges, bananas
- Vegetables: Broccoli, carrots, artichokes, sweet potatoes, leeks
- Whole grains: Oats, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat
- Legumes: Lentils, black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans
- Nuts & Seeds: Almonds, chia seeds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
- Supplemental fibre: Partially hydrolysed guar gum, acacia gum, psyllium husk.
Should You Take a Fibre Supplement?
While whole foods should form the majority of your fibre intake, busy lifestyles and dietary restrictions can make it harder to meet your daily needs. If you’re looking for a convenient way to improve digestive health, relieve constipation and bloating, and promote a healthy gut microbiome, then the addition of a fibre supplement may benefit you.
When choosing a fibre supplement, consider partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG) fibre, a versatile, gut-friendly fibre that can be easily added to soups, smoothies or consumed on its own.
Fibre offers a wealth of benefits for your gut, digestion, immunity and overall health. By incorporating more high-fibre foods into your diet–and supplementing where necessary–you’ll feel the difference almost immediately.
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This article was written by Sophia Power, Clinical Nutritionist.
References:
- Wang, M., et al. In vitro colonic fermentation of dietary fibers: Fermentation rate, short-chain fatty acid production and changes in microbiota. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2019;88:1-9. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224418307878
- Evans, C.E.L. Dietary fibre and cardiovascular health: a review of current evidence and policy. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2019;79(1):61-67. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/dietary-fibre-and-cardiovascular-health-a-review-of-current-evidence-and-policy/
- Cai, D., et al. Nutrient intake is associated with longevity characterization by metabolites and element profiles of healthy centenarians. Nutrients, 2016;8(9):564. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/9/564
- Eatforhealth.gov.au. Dietary Fibre. Accessed 14 Dec 2024 from https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/nutrient-reference-values/nutrients/dietary-fibre
- Belobrajdic, D., et al. Gut health and weight loss. CSIRO, 2019.