Enjoy Corn Thins slices to Promote a Healthy Gut and Body

Posted January 2022
2022-02
Avocado + Bagel spice on Corn Thins slices

Fiber plays many roles in optimizing the health of your body, from helping remove waste products from your body to promoting and maintain a healthy body weight. Talking about toilet habits may not seem civilized but it is an important part of your health. Your body needs to excrete waste products regularly to keep your guts healthy and helps to reduce your risk of unwanted medical conditions. By including enough fiber each day, you are giving your body the ability to work well to be able to produce healthy stools and prevent uncomfortable conditions like constipation.

Two types of soluble, prebiotic fibers from a group of fructans called inulin and Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) give food for the good microbes living in your gut. When these bacteria eat the fiber, they create short chain fatty acids. These short chain fatty acids absorb salt and fluid in your gut which makes your stool a healthy consistency for moving and passing through your body. By including more of these types of fiber in your diet the amount of healthy gut microbes increases and as a result increases the amount of short chain fatty acids being produced.

Short chain fatty acids produced when inulin and FOS is eaten by the healthy gut microbes also promoted the smooth muscle in your bowels to function and increases their motility. A meta-analysis and systematic review which is a strong level of evidence found that those people who included more inulin and FOS in their diet had an additional 1.6 bowel movements each week compared to those with low amounts of fructans in their diet.

Resistant starch is a type of starch your body cannot digest. The average Australian consumed 3-9g of resistant starch each day. The goal for optimal gut health and function is 15-20g. Corn Thins slices are one source of resistant starch. The benefits of resistant starch include:

  1. Promote an optimal gut microbiome to be more of the healthy varieties.
  2. Resistant starch is fermented by your gut microbiome and produce short chain fatty acids. These short chain fatty acids have many health effects on your body.
  3. Resistant starch can allow the hormone insulin to work better. Insulin is needed to take sugar out of your blood stream into the cells of your body.
  4. Promotes a healthy body weight by increasing your ‘fullness’ hormones leptin, peptide YY, and GLP-1.

More than 70% of Australian adults and more than 50% of Australian children are not meeting their daily fiber needs for health and gut function. Corn Thins slices containing quality whole grains can offer a good source of dietary fiber.

Take home message:  By including enough fiber each day, you will feel better, promote overall body wellness, and allow your gut will be able to work at its best.

 

 

Reference:

  1. de Vries J, Le Bourgot C, Calame W, Respondek F. Effects of β-Fructans Fiber on Bowel Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2019 Jan 4;11(1):9 doi: 10.3390/nu11010091. PMID: 30621208; PMCID: PMC6356805.

 

Ashleigh Felth…
Accredited Practising Dietitian
  • Article By:
    • Ashleigh Felth…