Telegraph Article17 Aug 2021 09:50
How a fibre-filled diet improves gut health and can add years to your life
Far from being a boring, ‘brown’ nutrient used to bulk out our meals, roughage is essential for gut health and has surprising benefits
The key, according to Dr Nikpay, is not to demonise sugar but to focus on this fibre-sugar ratio. His studies around the world, he says, indicate that a higher ratio of fibre to sugar is the key to a longer life, with an extra 10g of fibre a day equating to a 10 per cent reduction in mortality. Using a diagram of a fist – four fingers and a thumb – as an easy reminder, he advises that we choose foods with at least one part fibre to four parts sugar. Most fruits fall into this category, but most snacks (some of which have 20 times as much sugar as fibre) don’t. Vegetables are better even than fruit, at one part sugar to three of fibre.
Why fibre? While Nanny may have recommended prunes “to keep you regular”, modern scientists agree that the strength of a fibre-rich diet is also its role in maintaining healthy gut bacteria. David Atherton, the winner of The Great British Bake Off in 2019 and a trained nurse who is now a health adviser, admits that “I always thought fibre was just to get your bowels moving, which is very important. But now science is looking at all these microbes in our large intestine and actually thinking about feeding them as well as feeding our body.”
While our bodies need calories and a variety of nutrients, as well as insoluble fibre to provide bulk, the microbiome’s “food” is largely soluble fibre (see below) along with some complex carbohydrates which make it through to the large intestine. It’s what’s sometimes called “prebiotics”, as opposed to “probiotics” which are live yeasts and good bacteria found in foods like live yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi.
Some sweeteners, such as inulin, claim to be prebiotic fibre, but Dr Nikpay is wary: “If they say it has a fibre base and is sweetening, I would say that it’s almost not a fibre any more.” To create a sweetener, the manufacturers “use enzymes or heat methods or acid to actually break open molecular bonds between the different sugar units in a fibre or in a complex carb… and once you get to one or two units, those are sugar from a fibre-health perspective.”
The simplest solution, you might think, would be to pop some fibre supplements – easy to find next to the vitamin pills in any health shop. But, says Dr Nikpay, these are too standardised, too simplified. He compares gut bacteria to the population of London – a great, diverse mass which needs a varied diet. He’s concerned by the idea that “you can supplement yourself out of trouble. No,” he argues, “you had better stick with normal food.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/fibre-filled-diet-improves-gut-health-can-add-years-life/
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