It is not often that TikTok food crazes get the approval of dietitians, but the latest trend, for ‘fibremaxxing’ has done just that.
The term just means increasing the amount of fibre in your diet – something that doctors have been encouraging people to do for decades, for its benefits to the gut and elsewhere.
Fibre is a type of carbohydrate that isn’t absorbed from the gut like the other main food components of sugar, starch, protein and fat, and so it can have noticeable effects on our bowel movements.
The main sources of fibre are pulses, like peas, beans and lentils, wholegrains, like brown bread and pasta, and, to a lesser extent, other vegetables, like sweet potato, sprouts and spinach, as well as nuts and seeds.
Most people in the UK don’t eat the recommended amount of fibre, and that can’t easily be fixed with supplements, like with vitamin deficiencies. Instead, it needs some radical changes to the diet.
Here are the answers to all the questions you might have about this latest nutritional trend.
Most people are well aware of the most obvious impact of fibre, on their bowel habits. Because most kinds of fibre are not digested and absorbed, to put it bluntly, they make poo more bulky.
Fibre also attracts water into the bowels, which adds to volume, as well as softening the stool. The net effect is that people who eat more fibre will open their bowels more often and more easily.
Wholegrain bread has even more fibre if it is seeded (Photo: Viktoriya Skorikova/Getty Images/Moment RF)Doctors are generally more concerned about how easy it is to poo rather than frequency, because straining to open your bowels can lead to piles – swollen blood vessels around the bum that can bleed.
Fibre isn’t just about avoiding constipation, though. The kind of fibre found in porridge lowers blood cholesterol levels.
Fibre may also help with weight control, because it makes us feel full. “It’s bulking up in inside your digestive system and that keeps you fuller for longer,” said Alan Marson, a consultant at New Food Innovation.
And some studies suggest high-fibre diets are linked with lower rates of bowel cancer. The theory is that, in low-fibre diets, food takes longer to transit the bowel, letting it release substances that promote tumour growth.
Increasing fibre consumption also boosts our gut bacteria, unsurprisingly, as it is providing them with more food.
How much fibre do you really need?
This is the big question. Official health advice is that we should have 30 grams per day, while the average UK intake is about 20 grams a day.
The thinking behind the 30 gram target is that this is closer to the dietary habits of our ancestors, before the advent of farming, when we started getting more of our calories from starchy carbohydrates.
More modern diets have even less fibre, because people generally eat white bread, pasta and rice, instead of the whole-grain versions.
It is unclear if 30 grams is enough. A review of all previous studies suggested that benefits to risk of cancer and heart disease rise with the more fibre we eat, even past the 30 gram target.
In a three week trial of a diet with 45 grams of fibre a day – based on the eating habits of people living traditionally in Papua New Guinea, people saw improvements in their blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
“If you go even higher, you get additional benefits,” said Professor Jens Walter, a microbiologist at University College Cork, who led the research.
Most kinds of plant-based foods will have a mix of different types of fibre. Some fibre compounds are completely insoluble in water and so will pass through the gut practically unchanged – so their main benefit will be on bowel movements.
Soluble forms of fibre can have different effects. For instance, they include compounds called beta-glucans, which reduce cholesterol.
That’s because beta-glucans mix with water to form a viscous gel in the bowel. This binds with bile salts, made by the liver, which forces the liver to make more bile salts, using up cholesterol in the process.
Other soluble forms of fibre are known as fermentable, because they become food for bacteria in the lower bowel. These release substances called butyrates as a byproduct, which helps keep gut cells healthy and lowers inflammation in the gut.
Are there any downsides to fibremaxxing?
A sudden jump in fibre intake can cause bloating and discomfort, from gas released by gut bacteria that have gone from famine to feast.
So, dietitians warn that fibremaxxing should be introduced gradually over a couple of weeks.
“Discomfort will generally pass as your system gets used to having more fibre,” said Bridget Benelam, communications manager for the British Nutrition Foundation.
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Some people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may also respond badly to higher fibre intake, with uncomfortable bloating and gas.
IBS is quite a variable condition; in some it causes constipation, while in others, diarrhoea is the chief problem.
“Every person is different when it comes to IBS,” said Benelam. “Being aware of your symptoms and what causes you problems is the way to go.”
Can you cheat with fibre supplements?
Because it is bulky, tablets can’t easily replace the amount of fibre in our diet that we should be eating. But a product called Fybogel is a powder that is mixed with water to make a drink.
This is a recommended treatment for constipation. But it contains only one kind of fibre – the viscous kind – and so doesn’t fully replicate the mix of different forms of fibre that you would get if you were having a mix of different plant foods.
Tips for boosting fibre intake
Get off to a good start in the morning, with wholemeal bread or a high-fibre cereal Switch out all forms of pasta, rice and noodles for their wholegrain versions Add beans and pulses to recipes like stews and curries wherever you can High-fibre snacks include wholegrain crackers with hummus and other bean dips Nut and seed mixes can be prepared in advance and used as snacks – they taste better if toastedHence then, the article about fibremaxxing explained the science behind tiktok s latest food trend was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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