Eating Well - Beaming with Health

30 The Commonsense Guide to Eating Well
and onto everything. What was formerly sneered at as chaff
for horses became the `in ' food for the health conscious. Chaff
suddenly trebled in price with the emergence of bran barons!
Nowadays, our knowledge of fibre is a lot more extensive.
For a start, we know that there are several different varieties
apart from cellulose.
Cellulose is the fibre that gives plants backbone. It is insol-
uble in water. Cellulose is found mainly in the bran of grains
such as wheat.
Pectin is abundant in fruits; for example, apples, oranges
and also in some root vegetables. Pectin swells up in size
when it is dissolved in water and for this reason is helpful in
treating constipation and diverticulitis, as it helps form a
bulkier,
softer stool. It is a soluble fibre, capable of lowering cholesterol
and removing toxins from the body.
Mucilage is a type of fibre that is water soluble and forms soft
and demulcent slippery stuff; for example, linseed, psyllium,
slippery elm and marshmallow. These fibres are used to help
soothe irritated linings of the digestive system as in ulcers,
colitis and diverticulitis. It is also very good for constipation
where the stool is hard and difficult to pass.
Algin is a type of fibre found in seaweed. Although it is mostly
used in the food-processing industry, the fibre in seaweed
has the ability to chelate with heavy metals such as lead, so it
makes a very good detoxifier. It also reduces the
ill-effects of radiation, which made seaweed very popular
post-Chernobyl.
Resistant starch is starch which resists digestion and
passes
through to the large bowl. Beans contain some of this resistant
starch, which is known as oligosaccharides.
Chitin is an unusual fibre, one that is not carbohydrate, found
in fungi, yeasts and the exoskeleton of invertebrates such as
insects and crustaceans. It is basically insoluble and has been
found to absorb fats. The diet industry has cottoned on to