Fibre is one of the most important parts of a healthy eating plan, especially if you are trying to lose weight or maintain your current weight and we have ensured that the Lose Baby Weight Plans and Healthy Mummy Smoothies are high in both soluble and insoluble fibre.
Consuming fibre will give you two benefits; one, it keeps your digestive system working properly, and two, it helps you to feel fuller for longer, which stops you from overeating.
Fibre is basically a plant material, found in various fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and cereals. But what makes fibre unique is that we cannot digest it, which is one of the reasons that it helps with weight loss and weight management.
What does fibre do?
When fibre is eaten, it sits in the stomach because it cannot be digested. When water is consumed alongside the fibre, it swells the fibre up in the tummy, which helps you to feel full. Foods that contain fibre tend to be bulky, too, which helps to fill you up even more.
Because fibre is not digestible, it must be eliminated through the body, which helps to keep you regular. And because it must be eliminated, it helps to keep you fuller for longer without you having to take in more calories.
Fibre also aids with the absorption of glucose. It slows the absorption of glucose down, which helps to prevent sugar highs and therefore sugar lows. Sugar highs often cause us to have sugar cravings, which can lead to us overeating.
High fibre foods are also usually low on the glycaemic index, which is an index that indicates how quickly a food releases glucose into the body. The lower a food on the GI, the more slowly it will release glucose, which is better for controlling your blood sugar levels. Not all foods that are low on the glycaemic index are high in fibre, so if you consume high fibre foods, you’ll be getting two benefits, not just one.
How much fibre do we need to consume?
- Women aged between 19 and 60 need to consume 25-30g per day
- Pregnant women need to consume 28g – 32g per day
- Lactating women need to consume 30g -34g per day
Pregnant and lactating women need to consume more fibre because their digestive tract naturally slows down, so they need help to keep things moving by eating more fibre.
How can I eat more fibre?
Easy! Eat foods that contain more fibre. Try including foods like the ones mentioned below in your everyday diet:
- Legumes
- Wholegrain products
- Cereals
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- The Healthy Mummy Smoothie has 6g of fibre in each smoothie – the highest amount of fibre that you will find in any ‘shake or smoothie’ based product
What is wholegrain?
Wholegrain food products are foods that contain all of the components of the natural grain, including the bran, germ and endosperm. Because wholegrain foods contain all of the grain, they haven’t been processed as much and therefore they contain a much higher fibre content than multigrain food products.
How can I eat more wholegrain?
You can easily get a whopping 2.5x more fibre per serving if you simply make some easy food swaps.
- Switch white paste for wholegrain pasta
- Switch white rice for brown rice
- Switch white bread or multigrain bread for wholegrain bread
Basically, switch white foods for brown foods and you’ll dramatically increase your wholegrain intake.
If you find getting more fibre into your diet difficult, try including high fibre food products into your life – for example, have a Healthy Mummy Smoothie for breakfast which is packed full of fibre. You can also watch what the nutritionist has to say on fibre and The Healthy Mummy Smoothies below
[pb_vidembed title=”Fibre & The Healthy Mummy Smoothie” caption=”” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zYkjcJnnoA” type=”yt” w=”580″ h=”455″]
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