The Super Seasonal Fibrous Veggie- Yam/ Suran/ Senai

Imagine eating around 6 kgs of food a day and staying lean (I mean) and healthy. That is exactly what hunter-gather ate for millennia without any obesity or chronic diseases. Today, it isn’t advised to eat 6 kgs of food each day, because the food in our society lacks one major secret ingredient that our ancestors ate in nearly all their food—fibre! 

One might wonder how fibre can prevent obesity and all of the chronic diseases of aging. It's actually quite simple. It slows the rate at which food enters your bloodstream and increases the speed at which food exits your body through the digestive tract. That keeps our blood sugar and cholesterol in ideal balance, quickly eliminates toxins from gut and reduces appetite. There is a special super fibre that is much more powerful than regular fibre- elephant yam. 

I will tell you about the remarkable discoveries in this area a little later. First let's learn how this discovery was made and why this super fibre is so important. Dr. Denis Burkitt, a famous physician, studied the differences between nomadic and their "civilized" counterparts. The nomadic seemed to be free of the scourges of modern life including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. He found that the average nomad had a stool weight of around 2 kgs, while an average civilized man had a stool weight of only 100 gms. So why the big difference? The average adult eats about 7 to 15 grams of fibre a day, the average hunter-gatherer eats 100 to 150 grams from all manner of roots, berries, leaves and plant foods. Humans need fibre to keep healthy from top to bottom, as well as to provide food for the healthy gut bacteria that work with us to promote health. 

How Fibre Prevents and Treats Disease

Research proves that fibre can lower blood sugar as effectively as some diabetic medication and controls blood pressure levels. Fibre is also definitely a great ally in the battle of the bulge. One study showed how butyrate, a type of fatty acid made by gut bacteria from certain types of fibre, acts as a switch that turns on the p21 tumor suppressor gene (an anti-cancer gene) and essentially, turns off colon cancer. It also lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease by as much as 40 percent.

Insoluble vs. Soluble Fibre 

Mostly when people think of fibre, they think of bran. Bran is a grain fibre that is mostly insoluble and doesn't get digested much like the roughage fibre of banana stem. Think of it as scouring our intestines. It's good for getting you regular, that adds bulk to the stool. Now the gut bacteria metabolize soluble fibre from fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and most whole grains. This leads to lower cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin; cancer prevention; balanced hormone levels, removing excess estrogen and reducing the risk of breast cancer; production of vital vitamins and minerals; food production for colon cells; and so much more. 

An Ancient Super Fibre 

Before I tell you how I want you to increase your fibre intake, I want to tell you about some recent discoveries of an ancient fibre source that can help one lower cholesterol, reduce appetite and lower blood sugar more effectively than any other fibre. It is called glucomannan, a soluble, fermentable and highly viscous dietary fibre. 

It is derived from the root of the elephant yam, native to Asia. More recently, purified yam flour has been used as a food stabilizer, gelling agent and supplement. It can absorb up to 50 times its weight in water (just like flax seeds), making it one of the most viscous dietary fibres known. Glucomannan works by promoting a sense of fullness. The fibre pushes more calories out through your colon, rather than letting them be absorbed. 

How does it promote weight loss you may wonder? 

This fibre lowers the energy density of the food we eat. In other words it bulks up food in our gut, creating a lower calorie content per weight of food we eat. Since fibre has almost no calories but a lot of weight, adding it to the diet lowers the energy-to-weight ratio of the food that is consumed. Studies show that it is the volume or weight of food that controls our appetite, so the fibre increases the weight without increasing calories. This powerful fibre may control our appetite in other key ways. For example, it can signal the brain that there is a lot of food in our gut, sending the message to slow down stuffing more food into our bellies. It also moves through the stomach and the small bowel slowly because it is so viscous. By slowing the rate of food absorption from the gut to the bloodstream, it reduces the amount of insulin produced after a meal, which also controls our appetite. 

It may also increase the level of hormones in the gut (such as cholecystokinin), also useful in maintaining healthy hormonal levels in the body. Lastly, more energy (calories) is lost through the stool because the calories are all soaked into the fibre. So make sure you eat more fibre. 

How to Boost Your Fibre Intake 

Here are some simple suggestions for increasing fibre in your diet:

>> Eat beans (all forms of legumes)—they beat out everything else for fibre.

>> Bulk up on vegetables like banana stem, yam, colocasia, tapioca and fruits like grapefruit, pineapple, pear, almost the seasonal fruits with almost simple calories, high levels of antioxidants and protective phytochemicals, these excellent fibre sources should be heaped on your plate daily. Also seeds like alive/ halim seeds, basil, flax.. 

>> Add whole grains be it rice, pulses, legumes, wheat, whole grains referring with bran intact. 

 The human body gets pleasant when it gets adapted to seasonal foods. 

We need no supplements when our diet complies with the seasonal produces. 

MJ :)