Eat more fibre?. Easy to say but hard to do? So why is fibre so good?

A great way to feel full quicker and lose weight is consuming a high fibre diet (30-40g per day). This can also reduce the risk of chronic disease, cancer, and heart disease.

Plant foods are the best sources of fibre, foods such as vegetables, legumes, fruit, whole grain cereals, nuts and seeds. These are important for the gut to function properly. It is also very important to drink lots of fluids such as water which causes the fibre to swell and act as a sponge, and to regulate gut movement.

Fibre acts like a sponge and soaks up sugar in the foods eaten, and releases it slowly, helping control blood sugar levels. It also reduces cholesterol absorption and excretion, therefore reducing blood cholesterol and risk of heart disease.

Foods that are high in fibre tend to be low in energy, and they also expand in the stomach and intestine like a sponge to help the feeling of being full. These foods are said to have low energy density. If compared to a bag of lollies, there is no fibre in lollies and they are very high in energy, and they don?t act like a sponge and expand in the stomach to help feel full and stop eating.

Eating acai berries means eating less energy for the same weight of food and therefore helping to prevent weight gain and risk of obesity.

There is a relatively high fiber content in organic freeze dried acai of 1.4g (per 5g serve) compared with an apple (1.8g) or a weetbix (1.8g). In an Acai smoothie with 3 scoops of organic freeze dried Aa powder, there is around 4g of dietary fibre! The new recommended intake for Australia and New Zealand suggest we consume 30g of fibre per day.