3. Quality and recipes
3.4. The nutritional value of bread
3.4.1. The underestimated importance of fibres
Do you like a bowl of muesli for breakfast ? Do you always eat wholemeal bread and do you like fruit and vegetables ? Nutritionists will love this. All these products are rich on nutritional fibres. Those are very important to our body but we are having too few of them. Especially our intestines (bowels) suffer from the lack of them.
Being healthy or not has a lot to do with our nutrition. A balanced nutrition contains all the needs for a good functioning. Vitamins, proteins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates (sugars, dextrins and starch). We know all these substances. Nutritional fibres are at least as important, but it is less known that they are of great importance to our body.
What is a nutritional fibre ? Most of us think it is as thready as the fibres of a piece of textile. This is not the case. Blackberries for instance contain a lot of nutritional fibres and they are not thready at all.
A nutritional fibre is that part of the plant we cannot digest. It is a general term for different substances which are located in the cell-wall of plants. Fibres provide firmness to the plant and damp absorption in the plant. More or less the same occurs in our body. Because fibres don't digest and retain fluid, they give volume to the content of the stomach and the intestines. They promote the bowel transit. For people who are having bowel problems, such as slow motion, haemorrhoids or constipation, fibre rich food is often sufficient to solve a large part of the problems.
Nutritious fibres are only found in plants. Eggs, cheese, milk, fish or chicken contain none. The most important sources of nutritious fibres are rye bread, wholemeal bread, vegetables, fruit, brown rice, nuts and white beans.
Nutritionists make a difference between 2 kinds of fibres. Fibres dissolving in water are mainly found in vegetables, fruit and leguminous plants. They have a laxative effect. They a positive effect on the cholesterol and glucose percentage in the blood and would therefore be useful for diabetics.
Non-dissolving fibres are mainly found in wholemeal products. They are a means against constipation because they are able to absorb water in the bowels.
Nutritional fibres are only found in unprocessed products. According to our nutritious habits, we get too little of them : wholemeal flour has become white flour, brown rice is white, apples are processed into transparent apple juice. And with the processes, fibres disappear from our daily diet. Besides nutritious fibres don't get destroyed during baking or cooking : they just become softer.
Nutritious fibres are considered to be an important element in the prevention of the typical prosperity diseases such as obesity, heart conditions and cancer of the bowels. A fibre shortage is not the cause of these diseases, but fibres will slow down the development of these diseases. Especially in the industrialized and well-developed countries, these prosperity diseases appear. Exactly in these places, the use of refined products such as white bread, white rice and white sugar is high.
In the study made by the National Council of Nutrition we learn that the average Belgian only gets 21 g of fibres every day while the recommended amount is 30 to 40 g per day.
The message is simple : eat more fibres. Therefore, systematically choose wholemeal bread or rye bread, both of which are rich in fibres. And if you choose for breakfast cereals, at least make an intelligent choice : choose the less sugared ones.
