Ikigai Daily
Menu
StillnessNutrition tip

Fibre is good for the gut and the heart, but adding a lot at once can cause bloating and wind. Increase fibre-rich foods such as wholegrains, beans, fruit and vegetables over a few weeks, and drink plenty of fluids so the fibre can do its work.

Health guidance synthesis

Health

The story behind the card

Fibre is the part of plant foods that the small intestine cannot digest. Some kinds pass through largely unchanged and hold water, which keeps stools soft; that is why fluid matters. Other kinds are broken down by bacteria in the large intestine, which releases gas, so a sudden jump in fibre can bring bloating and wind until the gut adjusts. The NHS advises increasing fibre gradually and drinking plenty of fluids. UK guidelines recommend 30 g a day for adults, yet most adults eat only about 20 g. A 2019 review in The Lancet, covering 185 long-term studies and 58 clinical trials, found that people who ate the most fibre had a 15 to 30 per cent lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, bowel cancer and early death than those who ate the least.

Türkçe oku
Lif bağırsağa da kalbe de iyi gelir; ama birden çok artırmak şişkinlik ve gaz yapabilir. Tam tahıllar, kuru baklagiller, meyve ve sebze gibi lifli yiyecekleri birkaç hafta içinde yavaş yavaş artır ve lifin işini yapabilmesi için bol sıvı iç.

Lif, bitkisel besinlerin ince bağırsakta sindirilemeyen kısmıdır. Bazı lif türleri bağırsaktan pek değişmeden geçer ve su tutarak dışkıyı yumuşatır; bol sıvı içmenin önemli olması bundandır. Bazı türlerini ise kalın bağırsaktaki bakteriler parçalar ve bu sırada gaz açığa çıkar; lif birden artırılınca bağırsak alışana kadar şişkinlik ve gaz olabilir. İngiltere'nin ulusal sağlık hizmeti NHS de lifin yavaş yavaş artırılmasını ve bol sıvı içilmesini önerir. Birleşik Krallık'ta yetişkinler için önerilen miktar günde 30 gramdır, ama yetişkinlerin çoğu ortalama 20 gram kadar lif alır. 2019'da The Lancet dergisinde yayımlanan bir derleme, 185 uzun süreli araştırmayı ve 58 klinik deneyi inceledi: En çok lif yiyenlerde kalp hastalığı, inme, tip 2 diyabet, kalın bağırsak kanseri ve erken ölüm riski, en az yiyenlere göre %15 ile %30 daha düşüktü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Dietary fiber
Get the mobile appAbout our cards

Related cards

These cards share a subject or reading mode with the card above.

DrivePhilosophy

He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.

English quotation books have called this an “Arabian proverb” since at least the 1860s; Tryon Edwards's A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891) is one, but these books give no Arabic original, so the label is best taken loosely. The idea is widely shared: good health gives people the strength to plan and to recover from setbacks. Turkish says “Her şeyin başı sağlık”, health comes first, and when a glass breaks people say “Sağlık olsun”: never mind, as long as everyone is well.

Spanish, Arabic variants ProverbRead card
DriveHealth

Protein helps with satiety, the feeling of fullness that lasts after a meal. Meals that include beans and lentils, eggs, fish, dairy or other protein sources can help people feel full for longer, although appetite and digestion vary from person to person.

In studies that compare meals with the same number of calories, the higher-protein version usually keeps people satisfied for longer, although the effect is modest. One reason is that protein prompts the gut to release more of the hormone PYY, which tells the brain that food has arrived; a 2006 study led by Rachel Batterham at University College London found the strongest PYY response after high-protein meals. Another is that the body works harder to process protein: a 2004 review by the Maastricht University physiologist Klaas Westerterp reports that digesting and using it burns 20 to 30% of its calories, against 5 to 10% for carbohydrate and up to 3% for fat. UK guidance puts adults' needs at about 0.75 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, around 45 g for women and 56 g for men, and average intakes are well above that.

NHSRead card
StillnessHealth

The fibre we eat comes from plant foods: fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy naturally contain none.

Fibre is the part of plant food that our digestive enzymes cannot break down. Much of it comes from the walls of plant cells, which give stems, peel and seeds their structure. Animals do not make these substances, so meat, fish, eggs and milk contain none. Mushrooms, which are fungi rather than plants, also supply a little fibre from their own cell walls. Nutritionists divide fibre into two kinds. Soluble fibre, found in oats, barley, apples and beans, dissolves in water in the gut, can form a gel and helps lower cholesterol. Insoluble fibre, in wholegrains, brown rice, nuts and the skins of fruit and vegetables, adds bulk and helps food pass through. Once fibre reaches the large intestine, gut bacteria ferment part of it into short-chain fatty acids, compounds that feed the cells lining the bowel.

NHS InformRead card
StillnessHealth

Whole fruit keeps its fibre and cell structure, so it takes longer to eat and fills you up more than juice. Juicing breaks the cells open and frees their sugars, which are harder on teeth. The NHS therefore counts juice as one of your five daily portions at most, and advises no more than 150ml a day.

In a 2009 study at Pennsylvania State University, Julie Flood-Obbagy and Barbara Rolls gave 58 adults an apple, apple sauce or apple juice 15 minutes before lunch, each with the same weight and calories. After the whole apple, people felt fuller and ate about 15% fewer calories across the starter and lunch together than on days with no starter. Juice did not have that effect, even with the apple's fibre added back. A larger Harvard analysis of about 187,000 American health professionals, published in the BMJ in 2013, found that people who ate more whole fruit, especially blueberries, grapes and apples, were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, while those who drank more fruit juice were slightly more likely to. Long-term observational studies like this show a link rather than proof of cause, but the two kinds of evidence point the same way.

NHS InformRead card
StillnessHealth

Water makes up about 60% of an adult's body weight. The body needs it to control its temperature, keep blood flowing, digest food and keep organs working. When lost fluid is not replaced, thirst can come with tiredness, headache, dizziness and poorer concentration.

Every day we lose water in urine, in sweat and even in our breath, and more in hot weather or during exercise. About a fifth of what we take in comes from food, especially fruit and vegetables, and the rest from drinks. The NHS suggests 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day, and water, lower-fat milk, tea and coffee all count. Thirst is the body's alarm: when the blood becomes slightly too concentrated, sensors in the hypothalamus, a small region at the base of the brain, trigger the urge to drink. This alarm weakens with age, which is one reason older people become dehydrated more easily. A simple check is the colour of urine: the NHS advises drinking enough to keep it a clear pale yellow, and darker urine is a sign to drink more.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthRead card
Next card in the archiveThe human brain contains about 86 billion neurons, the nerve cells that carry signals, and roughly as many other cells that support them. Each neuron can connect with thousands of others. The figure comes from a 2009 study that counted the cells instead of estimating them.Read next →