Fibre

Blood pressure

Cholestrol and

diet

There is hardly a man or woman alive who hasn't heard about the benefits of fibre in the diet. Everywhere you turn you are being bombarded by someone telling you to increase your fibre intake.

In case you haven't played close attention, the whole thing began in 1972 when Dr Dennis Burkitt, who had been studying primitive tribes in Africa wrote a landmark paper published in the British Journal The Lancet.

He observed when the diet contained a loss of roughage, bowel movements are softer and larger, and bowel movements are far more frequent.

His conclusion, comparing the health of Africans with that of Westerners, was that dietary fibre has a role in the prevention of certain large intestine diseases, including cancer of the colon and diverticulitis.

He also noted that "the serum-cholesterol rises when fibre is removed from the diet. Eating a fibre rich diet or adding cellulose to the diet lowers the serum cholesterol".

Fibre and the media

The story of fibre became a media frenzy. There were high fibre recipes in magazines and newspapers and pep talks on television.

Quickly responding to the strong public demand, the food industry began actively marketing fibre in a wide variety of foods.

Advertising pointed out fibre benefits of breads and cereals, especially breakfast cereals.

But, while a rose is a rose is a rose, not all fibre is the same. It is not that any harm can be done by consuming one fibre rather than another. Rather different fibres accomplished different health benefits.

The different sources and types of Fibre

For example wheat fibre is excellent for speeding up "transit time" it takes for food to move through the digestive tract. Such fibre is the ultimate natural laxative. In fact a number of different fibre from a wide variety of food sources will achieve the same goal.

Unfortunately the same does not hold true for the ability of all fibre to lower cholesterol levels. Research findings have been building over the last few years until we have conclusive evidence that oat bran is the fibre of choice for those who wish to keep their cholesterol levels out of the risk zone.

The difference between Oat bran and Wheat bran

It is an amazing story that is worth telling.
The difference between oat bran and wheat bran is that oat bran contains a large portion of soluble fibre, whereas wheat has mainly in soluble fibre. It is the soluble fibre that is capable of lowering cholesterol levels.

Oat bran fibre significantly lowers both total cholesterol and LDL levels whilst not at all lowering the protective HDL levels. As a side benefit oat bran fibre helps maintain a normal good goes level in the blood of diabetic patients. Investigations regarding oat fibre have been conducted all over the world. Both animal and human studies have consistently demonstrated the significant effect oat bran fibre has on cholesterol levels in the blood.

How Does Oat Bran Fibre Work?

No one knows for certain how oat bran fibre works. Most research papers written on the subject point to the fact that, when (included in the diet, the excretion of bile acids increases. What does that mean? Bile acids are formed by the liver from cholesterol. The more bile acids that are excreted the more cholesterol is drawn out of the blood, and eventually out of other parts of the body. Thus there is less chants of cholesterol being deposited in the arteries. This could very well be the reason oat bran fibre reduces levels of cholesterol.

Additional Benefits Of Oat Bran fibre.

It should not come as any surprise that oat bran fibre has a number of benefits beyond the lowering of cholesterol levels. High fibre diets such as those including oat bran actually lower insulin requirements for diabetic patients and help control blood sugar.

Oat bran to lower insulin levels

Dr Anderson's research has documented that high fibre, high carbohydrate diets brought insulin requirements down by 25 to 50%, and also helped those diabetic patients who previously required drugs other than insulin to control the disease.

Using the high fibre, high carbohydrate diet, Dr Anderson was able to discontinue drug therapy for 90% of non-insulin dependent diabetic patients.

The same approach to the diet, with high intake of fibre such as oat bran has been demonstrated to lower blood pressure by about 10%.
There is also a very special added benefit that may come as a pleasant surprise: eating a diet rich in to bran fibre virtually assures weight control.

Some of the reasons for this are relatively obvious. First, eating a high fibre apple is more satisfying than gulping a glass of apple juice. The simple act of during his more enjoyable than swallowing. Second the fibre replaces other high-fat and high kilojoule foods, resulting in a total reduction of kilojoules or calories.

Oat bran fiber and weight loss

Most significantly, when one eats a lot of oat bran, say three muffins a day, you just don't get hungry.
Oat bran keeps you satisfied.

Dr Anderson reports three reasons as to why oat bran fibre may help in weight reduction. First, there is a certain amount of loss of kilojoules directly through the faeces.
Second, carbohydrates are not fully metabolised.

Thirdly, fibre rich foods require more energy to digests, bus actually increasing the rate at which kilojoules are burned. Obviously for those individuals who have a few pounds to lose, this is a tremendous benefit.

You will find that by following the diet plan including oat bran fibre you can virtually eat as much food as you wish.

Taking the First Step to include Oat bran Fibre in your diet.

Oat Bran fibre is available in practically every supermarket and health food store. For the most part oat bran comes in 500 g (one pound) packages.

The original way of serving oat bran was as a hot creamy cereal. But cereal is just the beginning. Oat bran may be used in a variety of recipes to replace in part or whole wheat flour. The simplest way to include oat bran in the diet is to make delicious oat bran muffins.

The advantage of muffins is that it practically impossible to get tired of them. One day it may be apple cinnamon, banana muffins, blueberry muffins, or even pumpkin muffins. The choice is huge and limited only by your imagination.

To the basic oat bran muffin recipe you can add a variety of ingredients to make the muffin a delectable treat.
You can't eat too much oat bran when it's baked in, muffins, breads, rolls, cakes, biscuits and other foods naturally suited to including it in the recipe.

Try the recipes on the fibre recipes page and down load the free recipes.

Look at the High Fibre Diet Page for more Information on how to incude fibre in your diet.