Eating more fibre is the key to better health

What is fibre?

Fibre is found in all plants including vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and grains. Fibre cannot be digested by humans, which means it does not contain energy (or kilojoules).

There are two types of fibre - insoluble and soluble fibre. Both types of fibre are important and beneficial for your health.

• Insoluble fibres (rough fibres) make up the outer layers of fruit and vegetables, such as the skin. If you peel an apple, the apple peel is insoluble fibre. Insoluble fibre is also found in wholegrains, bran, nuts and seeds.
• Soluble fibres (soft fibres) are found in the inner flesh of fruit and vegetables. If you are eating a peeled apple, you are eating soluble fibre. Soluble fibre is found in foods such as rolled oats, legumes, peas and barley.

Diabetes and Fibre

People with diabetes can benefit from eating more fibre for many reasons.

1. Fibre lowers the glycaemic index (GI) of food

Fibre slows food moving from the stomach into the small intestine. This prevents spikes in BGLs after meals. An easy way to add more fibre to anything you are eating is by adding more vegetables or salad.

You can do this by:

• Adding more salad to your sandwich
• Adding more vegetables to a beef or chicken stir-fry
• Adding grated carrot and zucchini to spaghetti bolognaise sauce
• Adding capsicum, green beans or bamboo shoots to a curry

Another option is to swap lower fibre carbohydrates in your diet for higher-fibre alternatives. Carbohydrates with more fibre generally have a lower GI. You can find a list of high and low GI carbohydrates on the Carbohydrates and Low GI Food factsheet. If you are eating any of the high GI carbohydrates regularly, swap them for a low GI alternative.

2. Fibre reduces unhealthy LDL cholesterol

People with diabetes have a greater risk of developing heart disease. It is especially important to keep cholesterol levels in-target. One method for doing this can be through higher intakes of soluble fibres.

Soluble fibres bind to bile during digestion and remove it from the body. Bile is needed to digest fat and can be made inside the body. When your bile levels drop, your body will make more bile out of LDL cholesterol (which is the bad one). Eating soluble fibre is one way to lower LDL cholesterol.

Practical ways to do this include:

• Add chickpeas, lentils or 4-bean mix to your salads
• Add barley to vegetable soups
• Dip wholegrain crackers or chopped veggie sticks into hummus
• Eat porridge, rolled oats or muesli for breakfast
• Add chickpeas or lentils to curries
• Add kidney beans to meals made with mince such as spaghetti Bolognese, tacos,
• Swap meat-based patties to bean-based patties such as lentil or chickpea patties

3. Fibre can help you to lose weight

Eating more fibre can help with weight loss for many reasons.

• It swells in your stomach to create a feeling of fullness, making it easier to eat smaller portions.
• It keeps food in the stomach for longer, which makes you feel fuller for longer.
• Staying satisfied helps prevent grazing or frequent snacking.
• Filling up on fibre can help you feel satisfied from food, while keeping your energy intake low becuase as mentioned earlier, fibre does not contain energy (kilojoules)

4. Keep it simple

As you now know, eating fibre is beneficial for your health for a variety of reasons. Just with any dietary change, keep it simple!
Here are 5 simple ways to eat more fibre:

1. Swap your breads, cereals and crackers for wholegrain (not wholemeal) varieties.
2. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons (or more) of psyllium husk or chia seeds onto your breakfast.
3. Eat a snack of low-starch vegetables every day e.g. chopped cucumber, capsicum or carrot.
4. Eat a snack of fresh fruit every day.
5. Add fibre-containing toppings to your crackers instead of just cheese, such as hummus, tomato, or cucumber.

​​​​Keen to learn more?

Check out some factsheets on fibre

• Fibres for your gut: sorting through the roughage – Dietitians Australia
• Increasing dietary fibre from Queensland Health
• Fibre from Dietitian connection
• Dietary fibre fact sheet from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute