Fibre February is here!
Okay, so why does Fibre get an entire month? What about the other macronutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins? You’re right, they’re all important and all have their part to play in a healthy diet. But the reason we’re focusing on fibre this February is that only 9% of adults in the UK meet the recommended daily intake of fibre in their diets*.
So – how much fibre should we be eating in a day? 30g of fibre is the daily recommendation in the UK. But most of us are only eating around 66% of this amount.
Why is fibre important? “There is strong evidence that eating plenty of fibre (commonly referred to as roughage) is associated with lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer. Choosing foods with fibre also makes us feel fuller, while a diet rich in fibre can help digestion and prevent constipation” – NHS Website**.
Fibre has been shown to improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut, which helps improve your immune system. Who wouldn’t want to have a better immune system? No one likes to be ill and getting the right amount of fibre is a great way to help naturally boost your immune system.
How do you get more fibre in your diet? It’s super easy with just a few small changes you can increase the amount of fibre you eat in a day. Fibre rich foods include wholegrains, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and pulses. Because the recommendation is only 30g a day, you don’t need to make massive changes to your diet to meet the guidance. Most people can probably get the amount they need just by changing one or two of the snacks they eat during the day.
For example, just by adding our salted cocoa toasted coconut chips to your breakfast you would be adding 8.5g of fibre to your meal – that’s almost a quarter of the daily recommended amount in just one snack. They taste amazing in a bowl of porridge oats – which is also another great source of fibre. Check them out here.
But if coconut isn’t your thing, why not try snacking on our pulses? Nudie Snacks Roasted Lentils or Chickpeas are the perfect on the go snack and our range of pluses are full of fibre and loaded with flavour and a small packet helps you with more that 20% of your daily recommended intake of fibre! Check them out here.
*https://www.igd.com/Portals/0/Downloads/Charitable%20Impact/IGD-Consumer-research-into-fibre.pdf **https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-get-more-fibre-into-your-diet/#:~:text=There%20is%20strong%20evidence%20that,help%20digestion%20and%20prevent%20constipation. ***https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/fibre.html
