Fibre is an essential part of our diet. It has many benefits, such as it keeps your,

• Bowel movements healthy
• Blood cholesterol and sugar level in control
• Makes you feel full for a long time
• Checks your weight

Fibre is found in large quantity in plant based products such as fruits, vegetables, beans, grains and legumes.

Daily Requirement

• Men under 50 - 38 grams of fibre/day
• Men over 50 - 30 grams of fibre/day
• Women under 50 - 25 grams of fibre/day
• Women over 50 - 21 grams of fibre/day

Eat more fruits & vegetables:

• 1 large apple = 4 grams
• 1 pear = 4 grams
• 1 banana = 3 grams
• 1 cup raw carrots = 4 grams
• 1 cup strawberries = 4 grams
• 1 cup cauliflower, cooked = 3 grams
• 2 cups raw spinach leaves = 3 grams

Cereals in breakfast:

Eat whole grain cereals in your breakfast.Replace white bread with whole wheat bread. Skip sugar and add cut fruits to your cereal.

Eat more of beans:

Have beans at least twice a week, 2 cups full. Beans are very high in fibre and rich in protein. One quarter cup of kidney beans (rajma) contains approximately 3 grams of fibre. It is advisable to consume them as baked or steamed rather than rajma-chawal recipe as it will add lot of calories to your meal.

Go nuts over nuts:

One quarter cup of almonds contains approximately four grams of fibre. Adding peanuts to your diet is also a tasty way of adding fibre to your diet but they are high in protein too. Avoid fried and salted nuts. Instead go for dry roasted ones.

Go for whole grains:

Not all products marketed "wheat" or "multigrain" are actually so. To be on the right track, Make sure "whole grain", "wheat" or "multigrain" is one of the first two ingredients in the list of that product.

Now that you know how much fibre you need and where to get it from, go grab some!

Having a fibrous diet always helps in keeping your digestive system healthy and maintaining a proper weight. Along with a balanced diet, a regular full body health check up should be part of your health plan so that if there are complications you can immediately take medications and treatment.