Boosting The Fibre In Your Diet What is Dietary Fibre? Dietary
fibre is the part of plants taken as food, which passes mostly
undigested into the large bowel (colon). There a two major types
of fibre, soluble and insoluble. Some fibre is insoluble and
supports the plant structure, other fibre is soluble, such as
vegetable gums. Animal foods such as meat or eggs have no fibre.
The definition of fibre now includes some components of what is
called resistant starch (i.e. starch resistant to enzymes
produced by humans), non starch polysaccharides such as
cellulose and gums, and lignin. These types of fibre are found
in a variety of foods and have a range of different health
benefits. Soluble fibre can help lower LDL ('bad') cholesterol,
while maintaining the HDL ('good') cholesterol. Soluble fibre is
mostly used in the first part of the large bowel. It is found in
fruit and vegetables and some cereals (e.g. oats) and especially
in legumes (dried peas, beans and lentils). Insoluble fibre is
more resistant to diges