My lovely friend G always jokes about getting enough roughage from his diet – it’s a standing joke now. But the meaning of the word fibre has gone out of fashion in the healthy food narrative these days. What a shame! Fibre is key to lots of imortant functions in our bodies, like feeding our gut flora – our gut bacteria needs fuel, just like we do. Not eating enough fibre can lead to  chronic illness and obesity. But equally, eating a lot of the right sort of fibre can prevent it.

As youngsters we were told to eat our grains to get enough fibre; like cereals, pasta and rice for example and to avoid fats at all cost. But these days the advice is very different and we now know that grains, even wholegrains, can add to unwanted sugar spikes despite not being refined. In addition, non-organic wheat is often filled with pesticides due to aggressive farming practices and can contribute to ill-health instead of support it according to Dr. Mercola who has some strong views regarding fibre intake. He also advocates that the best source of fibre actually comes from the humble vegetable and that the reason why so many of us are fibre deficient is that we simply don’t eat enough veggies each day. He advocates 50g fibre for every 1000 calories!

Good sources of fibre:

• Psyllium seed husks, flax seeds, chia seeds
• Root vegetables, (onions, sweet potatoes)Flax seed
• Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans, Brussel sprouts
• Almonds, berries

If you are regularly constipated, overweight or have issues with inflammation upping your fibre intake via veggies may be a first port of call. If you struggle to eat enough then add some soluable fibre in your water or juice, such as organic psyllium husks, which can start an immediate change in your body.

If you lack ideas of what to cook/prepare in order to up the intake of vegetables just play around with what’s in your fridge and add some new vegetables to your shopping ist – the more you mix and match the more creative you’ll get. Today’s recipe features my favorite chewy, leafy, crunchy salad that leaves you feeling full yet light.

Crunchy cabbage salad with a creamy cumin and turmeric dressing

Salad:

Handful of pointy cabbage, sliced

Handful of kale, chopped

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 spring onion, chopped

1/2 inch of fresh ginger, finely sliced

sliced fresh red chilli (depending on what you can tolerate

5 soaked almonds

5 soaked cashew nuts

Dressing:

1 tsp tahini

1 tsp white miso

1/2 inch ginger, very finely cubed

1/2 lemon, juice of

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cumin

salt & pepper to taste

How to:

Slice all vegetables according to recipe and place in a bowl. In a small glass jar (with lid) add the dressing ingredients and shake well. Mix a generous amount of dressing in the salad and stir thoroughly until all is covered. Place chopped chilli on top and garnish with the nuts. Also great as a side for salmond or chicken. Enjoy!

Love,

Birgitta xx