7 Benefits of Fibre - and you thought there was just One?
Fibre binds to excess cholesterol so can help protect your heart
Fibre binds to excess oestrogen, a hormone that is now ubiquitous in water and damages the balance of other hormones in your body
Fibre stops the re-absorption of toxins that your liver has worked hard to separate out. If there is insufficient fibre then those toxins simply get reabsorbed into your body - a bad outcome.
Fibre feeds 'good' gut bacteria in your intestines and those then reward you by making various vitamins such as vitamin B12.
Fibre slows down the absorption of sugars/fast carbs which stops big swings in your energy levels and stops you feeling hungry for longer.
Fibre removes toxins from your body by binding to toxic waste and so keeping the inside wall of your intestines in better order to absorb all the good nutrients you are eating.
Fibre does not exist by itself - you eat it alongside masses of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals and those are the key to health.
But what is 'Fibre'? it is a chain of carbohydrate molecules, but so many molecules long that your digestive system cannot break it down. A very short chain of molecules of 1 or 2 long is 'sugar'; longer than that is what we tend to call carbohydrate (potatoes, rice, wheat, carrot); much longer than that it becomes fibre (apple skin, bran, the skin of most veg and fruits). These are what you want to be eating lots of every day.
Tip: Eat a whole apple, not apple juice. the whole fruit contains fibre whilst the juice is a fast carbohydrate - not good. The whole apple has loads of phytonutrients