Health Benefits Of Fibre

THE GENERAL HEALTH EFFECTS OF FIBRES

Fibres that you eat affect your digestion in several ways. Fibres help move food and digestive byproducts efficiently through the large intestine (colon) and out of the body.

The faster food and digestive byproducts pass through the gastrointestinal tract, the less time there is for potential cancer-causing agents to do their damage. Fibre is also thought to dilute potential carcinogens, thus lessening their impact. It also helps to alter the metabolism of certain bacteria in the digestive tract, promoting a healthy digestion.

A high-fat diet increases the amount of bile acids and bacterial enzymes in the colon, where bacteria can convert them to cancer-causing chemicals. Increasing the quantity of fibre in the intestines helps to reverse this effect by diluting or inactivating the chemicals and reducing the level of bile acids and bacteria.

Another important function of fibre is to keep wastes and their cancer-causing byproducts flowing quickly, so that they'll leave the body before they have much time to come in contact with the sensitive cells that line the inner walls of the bowel. In a typical diet, food needs 3 days or more to pass through the bowel. Eating even less fibre can allow food to remain in the body still longer. With a high-fibre diet, food is eliminated in 1 day or 2.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that Americans now consume an average of 11 grams of fibre daily and recommends doubling that amount. Consuming between 20 and 30 grams of fibre a day could cut your risk of cancer.

SANKOM—SWEETS WITH DIETARY FIBRES, VITAMIN COMPLEXES, AND MICROCELLS

The maintenance cellulose (fibres) in the elected products:

On 100 g:

• Rye bread 5.4 g
• Groats ("Muesli") 4.0 g
• Apple 2.1 g ? Banana 1.3 g
• Peach 1.4 g
• Sweets with vegetative fibres SANKOM fibres 16 g (4 g/25 g )

 

THE NECESSITY OF DIETARY FIBRES IN HUMAN NUTRITION

THE ROLE OF DIETARY FIBRES IN THE DAILY DIET

WHY DIETARY FIBRES?

Doctors and nutrition specialists are advising people of all ages to consume more dietary fibres. Much research suggests that fibres could prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other diseases.

WHAT ARE DIETARY FIBRES?

Fibres are not a single food or substance. Fibre in itself has no calories because the body cannot absorb it.

As it is carried through the digestive system and out the body, fibre maintains health and lowers the risk of number of diseases and conditions, including colorectal and other types of cancer.

Plants are a unique source of dietary fibre because of the polysaccharide structure of the cell wall, as well as the storage and secretion polysaccharides associated with plant cells and seeds.

Dietary fibre is clearly important for normal gastrointestinal function. This role is well defined in the large intestine, where dietary fibre provides bulk and the substrates for microbial activity.

Several investigators have proposed that the adequacy of fibre intake can be determined by estimating the amount of fibre needed to maintain an adequate stool weight and transit time.

THE GENERAL CANCER—FIGHTING EFFECTS OF FIBRES

The fibre you eat affects your digestion in several ways. Fibre helps move food and digestive by-products efficiently through the large intestine (colon) and out the body.

The faster food and digestive by-products travel through the gastrointestinal tract, the less time there is for potential cancer-causing agents to do their damage. Fibre is also thought to dilute potential carcinogens, thus lessening their impact. It also helps alter the metabolism of certain bacteria in the digestive tract, promoting health digestion.

A high-fat diet increases the amount of bile acids and bacterial enzymes in the colon, where bacteria can convert them to cancer-causing chemicals. Increasing the amount of fibre in the intestines helps to reverse this effect by diluting or inactivating the chemicals and reducing the level of bile acids and bacteria.

Another important function of fibre is to keep wastes and their cancer-causing byproducts flowing quickly so that they'll leave the body before they have much time to come in contact with the sensitive cells that line the inner walls of the bowel. In a typical diet, food takes 3 days or more to pass through the bowel. Eating even less fibre can allow food to remain in the body still longer.

With a high-fibre diet, food is eliminated in 1 day or 2.

The US National Cancer Institute estimates that Americans now eat an average of 11 grams of fibre daily and recommends doubling that amount. Consuming between 20 and 30 grams of fibre a day could cut your risk of cancer.

PREVENTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Several long-term epidemiological studies indicated a positive association between increased fibre intake and a decreased risk of coronary heart disease. In most of these studies, this association was no longer significant when controlling for other factors, such as total calorie or fat intake. Thus, evidence for a unique protective role of dietary fibre based on population studies is inconclusive. Nonetheless, this potential association has resulted in many clinical and animal studies conducted to investigate the ability of sources of dietary fibre to lower plasma cholesterol.

Several mechanisms have been proposed whereby sources of fibre affect cholesterol metabolism. These include increasing of fecal excretion of bile acids, slowing the rate of lipid absorption, and enhancing the production of SCFA by polysaccharide fermentation in the large bowel. Each of these factors undoubtedly contributes to the hypocholesterolemic effects of fibre; however, the relative importance of each is not well understood at this time.

HYPOCHOLESTEROLEMIC EFFECTS OF FIBRE

Scientists theorize that fibres lower cholesterol by trapping bile acids in the digestive system. The liver manufactures bile acids from cholesterol. When fibre pulls these acids out of the digestive system, the liver draws cholesterol from the bloodstream to manufacture replacement acids.

PROTECTION AGAINST COLON CANCER

Epidemiologic and experimental evidence has suggested that a diet high in fibre may be associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer. Although several methodological difficulties have complicated the interpretation of epidemiological studies, the majority of these studies support the view that fibre-rich diets and consumption of vegetables are associated with a protective effect against colon cancer. With regard to vegetables, however, one cannot discriminate between effects related to fibre and those related to nonfibre constituents.

Several plausible mechanisms have been formulated by which fibre may provide protection against colon cancer. These include dilution of contents, absorption of potential carcinogens, more rapid turnover of contents (decreased transit time), alteration of large intestinal contents by microbial action, and alteration of bile acid metabolism. Our current knowledge indicates that we are still far from establishing a clear cause and effect relationship between fibre intake and protection from colon cancer. However, this area of investigation has renewed interest in the nutritional importance of plant-derived foods and has stimulated research activity on the various constituents of plants that may be anticarcinogenic.

In addition to its established role in the large intestine, dietary fibre regulates the rate and site of nutrient absorption in the upper gastrointestinal tract. For example, viscous polysaccharides promote nutrient absorption along a greater length of the small intestine. Although the clinical implications of this effect have not been fully explored, nutrient absorption from the ileum delays gastric emptying, induces satiety, and alters postprandial lipoprotein composition.

PREVENTION OF BREAST CANCER

A pooled analysis of 12 case-control studies of dietary factors and risk of breast cancer found that high dietary fibre intake was associated with reduced risk of breast cancer.

Dietary fibre intake also has been linked to lower risk of benign proliferative epithelial disorders of the breast. Breast cancer is greatly feared, and rightly so, as the most common cancer among women. In addition, although breast cancer strikes more women after age 50 than before, thousands of women under 50 are diagnosed with it each year. But whether there is a history of breast cancer in your family or not, you can definitely improve your chances of avoiding it by following a few nutritional rules.

Among the surest findings in decades of research on the relationship of diet to cancer is the specific connection between a high-fat, low-fibre diet and breast cancer. Fat is bad news for a number of reasons that are still being studied. Dietary fat easily becomes body fat and body fat produces extra estrogen. In turn, high levels of estrogen circulating through the blood can apparently help tumors grow in the breast and reproductive tract.

Fibre interacts with fat as well. It may reduce the body's absorption of fat, in turn reducing it's production of estrogen.

Fibre also helps speed cancerous substances that have reached the intestines through and out of the body before they can cause serious damage.

Women who eat extra fibre also rid themselves of more of their excess estrogen in bowel movements rather than in urine. This is important because estrogen in the urine can be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and eventually reaches the breasts and other organs vulnerable to hormone-related cancer.

Dietary fibre "binds up" estrogen as it enters the small intestine and may do the same with other cancer-causing agents, preventing them from being absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream where they can be carried to the breasts.

PLASMA GLUCOSE AND INSULIN RESPONSE

The ability of soluble, viscous polysaccharides to blunt the increase in plasma glucose and insulin following a glucose load has been related to a delay in gastric emptying and an increased viscosity of the gastrointestinal contents.

In unrefined foods, the presence of fibre is likely to slow carbohydrate absorption with the digestion of starch or other saccharides. In unrefined foods, plant cell walls or bran layers in cereal grains can serve as barrier to the penetration of digestive enzymes.

PREVENTION OF DIVERTICULOSIS

Increased fibre intake has been suggested for disorders involving the large intestine such as constipation, diverticulosis, and irritable bowel syndrome. In all these disorders, numerous factors other than diet can contribute to the development of the disorder.

In particular, in irritable bowel syndrome, personality and anxiety as well as dietary factors can be contributing causes. Among identifiable dietary factors, fibre is the only constituent that appears to affect stool weight. Hence, in cases of constipation or irritable bowel syndrome in which a low fibre intake is associated with low stool weight, increasing fibre intake by recommending dietary modifications or by recommending consumption of coarse wheat bran may be beneficial. In symptomatic, uncomplicated diverticulosis, coarse wheat bran consumption has been recommended to increase stool volume and to lower colonic pressure.

MAGNESIUM AND HUMAN HEALTH

What is magnesium?
Magnesium is one of the minerals that we require in relatively large amounts. It is particularly abundant in green vegetables, and in also available in natural supplements.

What does magnesium do?
Magnesium plays many roles in the body. It promotes absorption and use of other minerals such as calcium, helps move sodium and potassium across the cell membranes, and it is involved in the metabolism of proteins and turns into essential enzymes.

Why do you need magnesium?
Magnesium helps bones grow and teeth remain strong. It enables nerve impulses to travel through the body, keeps the body's metabolism in balance, and helps the muscles—including the heart—work properly. Up to 3/4 of the US population gets less than recommended amount of magnesium (400 milligrams a day).

Those most likely to be deficient in magnesium include the elderly, diabetics, moderate or heavy drinkers, and people taking diuretics. Doctors use magnesium to treat heart rhythm abnormalities, and it may help prevent clogging of the arteries.

GREEN TEA AND CANCER PREVENTION

The human body constantly produces unstable molecules called oxidants, also commonly referred to as free radicals. To become stable, oxidants steal electrons from other molecules and, in the process, damage cell proteins and genetic material. This damage may leave the cell vulnerable to cancer. Antioxidants are substances that allow the human body to scavenge and seize oxidants. Like other antioxidants, the catechins found in tea selectively inhibit specific enzyme activities that lead to cancer. They may also target and repair DNA aberrations caused by oxidants.

Studies have shown tea catechins act as powerful inhibitors of cancer growth in several ways: They scavenge oxidants before cell injuries occur, reduce the incidence and size of chemically induced tumors, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells. In studies of liver, skin and stomach cancer, chemically induced tumors were shown to decrease in size in mice that were fed green and black tea.