Digestive Aids Part 1

There is a wide range of digestive aids, from the much discussed value of fibre to little-known sugars that offer special benefits Let’s begin with fibre.

FIBRE: Roughage to live well

Dennis Burkitt, a brilliant British doctor who worked in Africa for twenty years, noticed something extraordinary in the rural areas where he worked – a nearly complete lack of diabetes, varicose veins, appendicitis, heart disease, colon cancer, irritable bowel, gallbladder disease, constipation and hiatal hernia. After carefully examining the African diet, he noticed that they ate one thing in far greater quantities than the ‘civilized’ world did: fibre. Though it is tempting to conclude from his findings that fibre corrects the entire spectrum of modern disease, Burkitt’s discoveries were simply epidemiological observations. This type of research can find correlations between possible causes an results, but correlation is not causation. These findings con be explained in another way: perhaps the refining of too Westernized countries is removing key nutrients nee e health. (Surgeon-Captain D. L. Cleave confirmed the identical African disease pattern but saw refined carbohydrates as the villain.)

Although this is an equally compelling explanation, other research has demonstrated that fibre is an integral part of a healthy diet. It plays an important role in maintaining the health of the digestive system and seems to have tangible value for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer diabetes and other ailments. Dietary fibre, in a recent very large Finnish epidemiological study, was found to be asociated with a 30 per cent reduction in heart-related deaths.

What IS Fibre?

Fiber is the portion of plant food that is not digested by the body and is often referred to as roughage. Because the body does not absorb the substance, it took much effort on the part of Dr Burkitt and others to convince Western medicine that this unused portion of food serves an important purpose. Fibre cleanses our intestinal tract and enhances its function, thereby benefitting nearly every digestive ailment. Metabolized by intestinal bacteria into substances that prevent colon cancer fibre also dilutes and speeds the removal of carcinogens and other toxins in food so that they spare the delicate lining of the GI tract. It also helps achieve optimal blood sugar control and cholesterol levels by slowing digestion and maximizing choles-terol excretion. Fibre is found in whole grains, beans and legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, but not in meat, fish, eggs, cheese or dairy products.

WHERE DID THE FIBRE GO?

The twentieth century has witnessed both a great reduction in fibre intake and a dramatic increase in our intake of refined carbohydrates. There can be no question that the general fright-ing escalation of degenerative disease is a result of both of these related phenomena. In America, the large-scale refining of Stains began in the 1890s, and grains like whole wheat were s turned into white flour on a massive scale. In the same decade sugar consumption increased dramatically – as the rage for drinking Coca-Cola swept the nation – to the point where Americans now concume fibre-free sugar in a week than their nineteenth-century counterparts did in a year. And alarm-ingly, the 50-gram-per-day increase in carbohydrate intake over the past decade is due entirely to an increase in these fibre-free carbohydrates.

THE DARK SIDE OF REFINEMENT

The devastating effects of these refined carbohydrates first began to materialize in 1920, when a new word entered medical lexicons — ‘myocardial infarction’, the scientific term for heart attacks. Hard as it may be to believe, heart attacks were unknown before the twentieth century (the first description of a heart attack in a medical journal appeared in 1912), and we have the food refiners to thank for its appearance. The clutching chest pain of angina, also a rarity, became much more common by the 1920s. And as refined carbohydrate foods like white bread and spaghetti made greater inroads on to dinner tables our risk for a variety of digestive problems, including appendicitis, hiatal hernia, haemorrhoids, constipation and divertic- ulosis increased. Low-fibre, high-sugar diets also increase the risk for colorectal cancer, breast cancer and, especially, diabetes and hypertension and their many consequences.
Because low-fibre foods provide less long-term satiety, we began to overeat. The not very surprising result is that the twentieth century has become the era of obesity. Americans literally take the cake as the most overweight people in the world owing in large part to their overconsumption of refined, low-fibre foods. The obesity, in turn, has contributed to the epidemic status of all the problems I just listed.

RETURNING TO WHOLE FOODS

For decades I have been urging my patients both to restrict carbohydrates (if they are overweight) and to consume more fibre. For many of them, this poses a dilemma and requires a personalized strategy. They need fibre sources that contain small to moderate amounts of carbohydrates, so I often recommend leafy green vegetables, freshly ground flaxmeal, nuts and see s For people who need not restrict carbohydrates, whole grains, fruits and legumes are excellent sources. Just don’t think the benefits of fibre mean that you can eat all the whole-grain, high- carbohydrate foods you want. Even though they are far better for you than refined grains like white flours and pastas, many people are stuck with the fact that too many carbohydrates will make them fat. For those of you facing this dilemma, my strategy for solving it is this: the best way to increase your fibre intake is to use fibre supplements.

Getting fibre in supplement form means that you can avoid the increased intake of carbohydrates and still get all of the nutrient’s benefits. Wheat bran, oat bran, guar gum, apple pectin and all of the pure fibre supplements contain very little digestible carbohydrates and therefore do not count as calories or towards your total carbohydrate intake. Now you know why I prescribe fibre supplements!