We’ve all heard of fibre, it’s healthy or something. But what is it actually and what does it do?

Fibre is made up of the parts of plants that our digestive system can’t break down – so it passes through our stomach and intestines and exits on the other side.
The Australian recommended fibre intake is 30 grams per day for adult men, and 25 grams per day for adult women (or 28 grams in pregnancy)1. However, a study2 from 2024 showed a 22-26% reduced risk of all-cause mortality with higher fibre intake.

Fibre helps with:
– Healthy bowel function
– Minimising risk of constipation, diverticulitis, haemorrhoids and fissures
– Reducing blood cholesterol
– Controlling blood sugar
– Preventing bowel and breast cancer
– Reducing risk of other chronic conditions such as heart disease, and diabetes
(* https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261561423003631)

This is all well and good to know, but how do we actually get fibre into our diets?

You might assume that fibre being made up from plant parts means you’ve got to eat salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.
Thank goodness, this is not the reality we live in.

Let’s take a look at some healthy foods and compare the fibre content.

Garden salads are pretty healthy, right? And packed with plants. They surely have plenty of fibre. For a full serve of salad, 2 whole cups or 220 grams – you will get a whopping 2.7 grams of fibre.

Now compare this to a humble serve of dark chocolate. A 25 gram serve will have 2.75 grams of fibre.
This doesn’t mean that salad isn’t healthy, – there’s plenty of vitamins and minerals in a salad that are important for us as well. It doesn’t mean that we should be eating dark chocolate by the block. It means that when thinking about getting fibre into our diets, it helps to know what has high fibre.

A big bunch of grapes looks like a lot of fruit but has only about 0.9 grams of fibre.
The same amount of raspberries – nearly 6.5 grams.

A massive bag of spinach is massively healthy, however, only 2.7 grams of fibre.
About the same as 1 tablespoon of flaxseeds, or I could have a tablespoon of chia seeds for nearly double as much fibre.

A handful of almonds will have about 2.1 grams of fibre.
A protein bar can have as little as 0 grams per serve (dependent on the brand).

None of the foods in the examples are inherently “unhealthy” foods. They just have different amounts of fibre. You don’t need to “cut” these foods from your diet to increase your fibre.
When making dietary changes, it is more sustainable to focus on what you can add to your meals rather than restricting or avoiding foods.
You could look at mixing a tablespoon of chia or flax seeds into your dressing for your salad, have a mixed bowl of grapes and raspberries so there’s a bit more fibre to go with it, have a handful of almonds as a side to your sandwich for lunch, mix a half serve of bran into half a serve of your favourite cereal, stir a can of lentils into that Bolognese you’re cooking.

Complete Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy can  help.

Give our friendly team a call if you would like help with a bowel related issue: (02) 4975 1311

References:
1. https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/nutrient-reference-values/nutrients/dietary-fibre
2. Ramezani F, Pourghazi F, Eslami M, et al. Dietary fiber intake and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Clinical Nutrition. 2024: 43 (1):65-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2023.11.005.