THE POWER OF ROUGHAGE!!

Fibre sometimes known as 'roughage,' aids and speeds up the excretion of waste and toxins from the body, therefore preventing them from hanging around too long in the bowel, which would cause a build-up (constipation). Constipation can lead to several other bowel diseases such as diverticular disease and cancer of the bowel. Diverticular disease is common in people over 40 in the developed world namely the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

What I find very interesting is that in third world countries diverticular disease is very rare - where people are very active and eat a lot of unprocessed foods such as brown rice. Diverticular disease is small pouches that 'bulge' out of weakened areas of the mucosa and sub-mucosal layers of the colon wall, this is thought to be caused by increased pressure in the colon when we strain excessively , which usually occurs when a person is chronically constipated. Also if the bowel wall/muscle is weakened through a poor diet low in fibre you are more susceptible to diverticulitis, constipation and other bowel problems. If one or more of these pouches become inflamed or infected (diverticulitis) this can be extremely painful, can warrant hospital admission and treatment with intravenous antibiotics, and can, in some cases proove fatal.