lifestyle
Healthy Heart Tip: Fibre – The Lifesaving Nutrient Many Of Us Lack
Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK
It is well known that eating fibre can prevent constipation, but did you know it can also lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer?
Dietary fibre can only be found in foods that come from plants, such as wholegrain cereals, wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, fruit, vegetables, beans, and lentils.
Here Heart Research UK provide some tips to help you increase the amount of fibre in your diet:
Choose a variety and snack wisely
Obtaining fibre from a variety of food sources is a great way to ensure a healthy balanced diet. It is also important to make sure you are drinking enough fluid to help fibre function properly. For healthier snacks, give unsalted nuts and seeds, fresh fruit, vegetable sticks or oatcakes a go!
Opt for high-fibre choices
Look out for cereals that are labelled as “whole grain” or with “bran” or “fibre” in their name. Try to choose plain varieties with no added sugars. Instead of white bread, white rice and white pasta, try switching to wholemeal or granary bread, brown rice and wholemeal pasta.
Eat your five a day and add pulses
Frozen, dried and tinned fruit and vegetables all count towards this. Try eating apples and potatoes with their skins still on, to further increase fibre intake.
Beans, lentils and chickpeas can be added to your favourite meals like curries, bolognese, chilli, soups and stews, to bulk them out and add nutrients.
Some people worry that if they increase their fibre intake it will cause them to suffer from flatulence (wind). To avoid this, you should gradually increase the amount of fibre in your diet to allow your body time to adjust. Good luck!
Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.
For more tips on how to improve your heart health, visit
https://heartresearch.org.uk/health-tips/