Yesterday James Bullen wrote a troubleshooting article about fibre on ABC News. It started with a question: “Have you been straining, huffing and puffing when you visit the toilet lately?”

Here’s the answer.

If you’re finding it difficult to do a poo, your bowel movements aren’t at regular intervals or you’re feeling really bloated, it could be that you don’t have enough fibre in your diet.

Fibre is critical — it’s the parts of our food that can’t be digested by the body, which helps to make us feel full after eating and aids in regular bowel movements. We’ve known for a while now that it’s useful for preventing conditions like constipation, haemorrhoids, obesity and bowel cancer. But the benefits are even greater than we thought, according to a research team working across New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

In research published in The Lancet, they found a diet high in fibre reduced the risk of a wide range of potentially life-threatening conditions, including heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

“What we came up with really surprised us in terms of the extent to which dietary fibre is protective against so many important diseases,” said study author Professor Jim Mann, from the University of Otago.

Read more at https://www.abc.net.au/…/fibre-has-big-benefits-an…/10891844 f