It’s not all about elimination - Don’t forget about fibre for skin health!
There’s nothing like having a chronic skin condition to fuel your passion for food and dietary triggers. Clients that have suffered years with debilitating skin conditions normally have done some serious groundwork to their diet before coming to see us. However, there is often a big focus around triggers and eliminations.
As we start to eliminate more foods in the hope to improve our condition, we often remove important food groups and nutrients. Our diet becomes so narrow that we aren’t adequately feeding our skin and gut. Long term, removing more and more foods is just a band-aid. (We always suggest you work with a qualified practitioner before doing this).
One of the macronutrients that often becomes neglected is fibre.
Fibre is one of the most important nutrients for our gut health. Good gut health = better skin.
What is fibre?
Fibre refers to the indigestible parts of plants, like veggies, fruit, grains and legumes. Fibre is a type of carb, which has so many benefits for your body. There are three types of fibre: soluble, insoluble and resistant starch.
What are the Health Benefits of Fibre?
Improved digestion and gut health
Fibre increases the absorption of essential nutrients and antioxidants. We know that nutrients like zinc, vitamin c, vitamin A and antioxidants to name a few are needed for skin health. Therefore eating enough fibre helps us absorb and utilise these more efficiently. Simply, fibre is one way that we can use food as medicine.
Fibre also feeds our good gut bugs. These little but powerful guys need an abundant of fibre to munch on, but they also love a diverse range. The more different types of plants and sources of fibre we can eat the more diverse our gut bugs will be. When we have less dysbiosis we help to reduce inflammation and improve our immune system. These two factors are always at the forefront of skin protocols.
Improved blood sugar levels
If you’re a client of ours you’ll know the importance of stable blood sugar levels – we can never emphasis this enough. Acne clients I know you hear us! Adding fibrous foods helps to slow the absorption of glucose (sugar) from your stomach into your bloodstream, helping to stabilise your blood sugar levels.
More nutrients
When we concentrate on reaching our fibre needs, we have to focus on more plant based foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole-grains. These foods generally have less human intervention and therefore pack a punch of nutrients. Our skin is our largest organ and it needs food to heal, glow and stay in healthy shape.
So how much fibre do we need?
It’s recommended that adult males should include 30g of fibre in their diet each day, and adult women should aim for 25g.
It’s important to note that if you have been eating much lower than this you will need to increase slowly. A quick increase in volume can cause some gut discomfort.
Some tips to increase your daily fibre:
Eat 1-2 pieces of fruit per day (making sure you eat the skin)
Add lentils to your mince dishes – trust me the kids won’t even know
Add some avocado to your eggs on toast – extra points for a side of mushrooms and spinach.
Have some nuts and seeds each day
Swap out a commercially made cereal to overnights oats with high fibre toppings like chia seeds, flaxseeds and berries.
Eat more plants – have vegetables with both lunch and dinner
Consider doing ‘meat free Monday’ and having a legume based meal.
Cut up vegetable sticks at the beginning of the week and have with hummus as a snack
Swap your grains for whole-grains – brown rice, wholegrain bread etc
Eat food that has no to little human intervention! Processed food is often low in fibre.
Please note that this is general advice. Patients with food sensitivities will need to follow their practitioners advise.
