4 high-fibre superfoods to include in your diet

There are a number of ways to improve your fibre intake. Eating the right foods is the first step but how do you know which ones are best?  Here are four that are surefire foods to get you the right fibre.

The fibre content of beans is among the best of any food. In fact, 15 of the top 20 foods on a chart of best fibre sources are beans. Research shows that eating 250 grams (1 cup) of beans per day can lower cholesterol by up to 10 percent in just six weeks. Beans also have the added benefit of being a powerful antioxidant and helps to reduce blood sugar levels. Beans contain both kinds of fibre:

• Insoluble, which helps your gastrointestinal system eliminate waste products more quickly.
• Soluble, which forms a gel in your intestines that helps lower levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol by whisking it out of your body.

You can also turn to breads or pasta for fibre but be careful of the pitfalls.

• Make sure it's whole grain: Only 20 percent of the bread, crackers and pasta sold are whole grain. Look carefully at the ingredients and don't fall for promotional lines that shout "100 percent wheat," "Multigrain," "Stone ground," or "Made with whole grains." These misleading descriptions aren't guarantees of a high-fibre bread.
• Colour doesn't determine fibre: Some dark, hearty-looking loaves, such as rye, pumpernickel and brown breads sprinkled with oats and seeds, aren't high in fibre either. Rather, they are made in large part of refined white flour and made to look dark by the addition of ingredients such as molasses.

Whole grain cereals and oatmeal are healthy superfoods.

• Oatmeal: Betaglucan, the soluble fibre found in oats, acts like a sponge, trapping cholesterol-rich bile acids in the intestines and eliminating them. The result is lower LDL cholesterol because there's less cholesterol to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Having a big bowl of oatmeal per day could cut cholesterol by an extra two to three percent.
• Whole grain cereals: These make for a terrific snack because they are healthy, filling, and ready to eat. People who ate whole-grain cereal every day were found to be 17 percent less likely to die over the next several years from any cause and 20 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who rarely or never ate whole-grain cereal. And there's a weight-control bonus. A recent survey found women who have cereal several times a week weigh 4 kilograms (9 pounds) less than those who pass up a bowl of flakes.

Brown rice and other grains like barley or couscous are an excellent fibre-rich addition to your dinner plate. What's wrong with white rice? Milling and polishing steal fibre and nutrients that make brown rice a delicious, satisfying, disease-battling superfood. Compared to white, brown rice packs four times more insoluble fibre as well as good amounts of niacin, vitamin B6, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and vitamin E.

The proof is there that eating high fibre superfoods like these will significantly improve your cholesterol count.