A nutritional specialist will tell you how many calories you should eat and even what balance of macronutrients is best for your weight loss goals. A personal trainer will tell you how long you should exercise and what the best exercises are for your body type and goals. But can anyone out there tell you how much fibre you need to eat every day?
Fibre’s Health Benefits
Dietary fibre is the part of plant foods that your body can’t digest or absorb. Good sources of fibre include vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and legumes. When you eat fibre, it goes through your system relatively intact. When it does, it delivers one of its main benefits: keeping your digestive system clean and running smoothly.
Here are just a few more of fibre’s benefits
- Promotes Weight Loss – By not being digested, fibre can slow down your absorption of simple carbohydrates, those that are most quickly converted to fat.
- Lowers Cholesterol – Fibre lowers your intake of “bad” LDL cholesterol.
- Helps Stabilize Blood Sugar Levels – Slowing the absorption of simple carbs, especially sugar, can improve their blood sugar levels and reduce their chances of developing type 2 diabetes
How to Determine How Much Fibre You Need Every Day
Unlike calories or even water, there’s no recommended daily intake of fibre. That’s because the ideal amount of fibre you should eat every day depends on how many calories you eat.
The simple formula for finding out how many grams of fibre you need every day is: eat at least 14 grams of fibre for every 1,000 calories of food you eat. On an 1,800 calorie-per-day diet? You should try to get at least 25 grams a day of fibre.
Here’s the Real Good News – Another reason why you don’t often see a recommended daily intake for fibre is that there is no prescribed limit on how much of it you can eat. Still, that doesn’t mean you can load up on fibre if your body isn’t used to it.
If you want to increase your fibre intake, do it slowly each day. Supplements like Herbal One’s Ultra Carb Bloc can also boost your fibre intake without changing your diet.
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