Fibre: The Unsung Hero of Your Health
- Daniela Radoman
- Mar 17
- 7 min read
When you look at a nutrition label, you probably glance at the calories first, then maybe the carbs, fats, and protein.
Do you ever take a look at how much fibre there is?
Maybe you should.
Most Canadians only get half the amount of fibre that they should be consuming.1
Considering fibre plays an important role in overall health, it would be a wise idea to check how much you’re consuming and make changes to your diet to make sure you’re getting enough.
Let’s take a look at why fibre is so important and why it shouldn’t be overlooked.
First Of All, What Is Fibre?
Dietary fibre is the portion of plant derived foods that can’t be digested by the body. It’s commonly found in 2 types, soluble and insoluble. You want to include both types in your diet.
Soluble fibre is the type that will dissolve in water, and it makes a gel-like substance in your digestive tract. This gel-like substance helps slow down digestion, and it has plenty of other health benefits like regulating blood sugar levels (prevents sharp spikes) and lowering cholesterol levels (binds to fatty acids which are then flushed out of the body). Some foods that are high in soluble fibre include beans, lentils, brussel sprouts, oats, nuts, apples, pears, and broccoli.
Insoluble fibre, on the other hand, does not dissolve in water and goes through your digestive system relatively intact. This helps it add bulk to stools that helps prevent constipation and promotes regular bowel movement. Foods with higher insoluble fibre content include whole wheat foods, wheat bran, cauliflower, green beans, dark leafy green vegetables like kale, as well as the skins of fruits.
There’s also a third type of fibre, called prebiotic fibre, which is really just fibre that is a food source for all those little microorganisms in your gut. This fibre gets fermented and used as food, which then helps make different compounds in your gut (i.e. short chain fatty acids) which go on to help nourish cells in the intestine, help make mucus in your digestive tract, and overall promote a healthy gut microbiome.
These prebiotic fibres have also been found to increase the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, which can help with bone density (super important for women!!), regulate bowel movements, improve immune system functioning, and even ward off allergy-related illnesses. Now, these benefits will depend on the microorganism and the type of prebiotic. Foods with high levels of prebiotic fibre include onions, garlic, leeks, dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichokes, as well as asparagus, cowpeas, and Kellogg’s All Bran cereal.
What Does Fibre Help With?
We sort of touched on the actual benefits of fibre already, but let's take a closer look.
Reduces the risk of mortality, heart disease, and cancer
Multiple studies have come out in recent years exploring how fibre crucial for decreasing the risk of developing heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.
From helping to decrease cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and helping manage body weight, it seems that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of fibre consumed to the risk of developing one of these conditions.2
It’s also been quoted that these benefits have been found to be dose-dependent on the amount of fibre consumed. For every 8g extra fibre someone consumed, the risk of each disease dropped between 5-27%!3
To quote another paper: “Random-effect meta-analysis shows that higher consumption of total dietary fiber, significantly decreased the risk of all-cause mortality, CVD-related mortality, and cancer-related mortality by 23, 26 and 22% respectively.”4
Helps with diabetes management and prevention
Another huge benefit of getting enough fibre in your diet is that it helps with blood sugar levels.
Whether you are pre-diabetic, type I diabetic, type II diabetic, or gestational diabetic, getting enough fibre in your diet has been found to help manage the condition.
One study found that adequate fibre intake helped lower insulin, overall cholesterol including LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, body weight, inflammation, and improve insulin sensitivity.5
Again, there seems to be a dose-response relationship, with the more fibre one consumes, the more benefits can be seen. The study referenced above compared people consuming 19g of fibre a day vs 35g a day. Just for reference, most people only eat about 15g a day.
Promotes regular bowel movements
Most people don’t really pay attention to this one until something is wrong. Whether that be going too frequently, like diarrhea, or not going enough, like constipation.
Fibre can help with both of these issues by helping promote regularity both in composition and frequency.
Like what was mentioned earlier, soluble fibre forms a gel-like substance which helps soften stool and aids in digestion, whereas insoluble fibre adds bulk to stool and promotes regularity.
Fosters a healthy gut microbiome
All the little bacteria and other microorganisms in your gut, while at first may make you uneasy, are actually good for you and you should aim to keep them happy and healthy.
Like what was mentioned earlier, having a healthy gut microbiome can help improve and promote nutrient absorption, and can help decrease inflammation in the digestive system.
There’s more and more research coming out on the importance of having a healthy gut microbiome and how it impacts various aspects of your health. It’s been an up and coming area of research for some time now so don’t be surprised if you keep hearing about new benefits in the years to come.
Managing weight & appetite
Since fibre helps slow down digestion, it can help you feel fuller for longer.
If you feel fuller, you’re less likely to overeat, which can help with weight management.
On top of that, since fibre helps slow down digestion, it helps keep blood sugar levels more stable. Spikes in blood sugar have a tendency to create cravings in some people, which lead them to look through their cabinets for a little treat.
In short, you can help keep your appetite and weight in check by making sure you get enough fibre in your diet.
How Much Fibre Do I Need?
It was mentioned at the beginning of this article that most Canadians get less than half the recommended daily intake of fibre. This begs the question, how much protein do we really need then?
For women, it’s 25g a day.
For men, it’s 38g a day.
Now, if you’re looking to increase your fibre intake, it’s best to do so gradually so your GI tract has some time to adapt.
Another important thing to note down is that if you start increasing your fibre intake, you’re going to want to start increasing your water intake as well. Since fibre tends to pull water into the digestive tract, it may end up slightly dehydrating you, and even leading to constipation.
Which brings us to the third point here, is that if you have any digestive problems like constipation, IBS, Crohn’s, or otherwise, you may want to check in with your physician before drastically changing your diet.
Tips To Get More Fibre In Your Diet
Here are some tips you can use to start getting more fibre in your diet today!
Choose beans, lentils, and other legumes more often, or add them to dishes you already often make
Add some chia seeds or flax seeds in smoothies or mix it into some yogurt
Add blueberries or strawberries as a yogurt topper
Add berries, nuts, and seeds to salads
Have some nuts and seeds as a handy snack
Eat your fruits with the peels
Snack on some veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, or carrots. You can accompany them with a healthier and fibre-rich dip like hummus.
Try to choose whole grain foods instead
Opt for whole foods over supplements when you can
Choose whole foods over processed foods
Read the ingredients list and look for “whole grain” or other known fibre-rich ingredients at the beginning of the list
Pay attention to the nutrition labels and don’t blindly trust what’s on the front packaging
Final Take Away
Beyond reducing disease risk and helping manage certain conditions, adding more fibre to your diet can also help manage body weight and food cravings. Women should aim for 25g per day while men should aim for 38g per day, but it’s important to make gradual changes to your diet and habits so not only does it make it easier for your body to adapt, but it can help make these new habits really stick in the long run. Not only that, but it can be a great way to get yourself to eat more of a variety of healthy foods with the added bonus of being great for your health.
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References
Canada, H. (2019, January 22). Government of Canada. Canada.ca. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/nutrients/fibre.html#
Xu, X., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Qi, H., & Wang, P. (2022). Associations between dietary fiber intake and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease and cancer: a prospective study. Journal of translational medicine, 20(1), 344. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03558-6
Reynolds, A., Mann, J., Cummings, J., Winter, N., Mete, E., & Te Morenga, L. (2019). Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Lancet (London, England), 393(10170), 434–445. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31809-9
Ramezani, F., Pourghazi, F., Eslami, M., Gholami, M., Mohammadian Khonsari, N., Ejtahed, H. S., Larijani, B., & Qorbani, M. (2024). Dietary fiber intake and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland), 43(1), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2023.11.005
Reynolds, A. N., Akerman, A. P., & Mann, J. (2020). Dietary fibre and whole grains in diabetes management: Systematic review and meta-analyses. PLoS medicine, 17(3), e1003053. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003053
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