A diet and healthy eating scientist has recommended a ‘really simple strategy’ for people wanting to improve their gut health. Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, has said that people can improve their gut health by increasing their plant and fibre intake. One easy way to do this is to ‘mix up your grains’, says Tim, who also co-founded the health app Zoe. The expert recommended four swaps which can hike fibre intake on his social media. “Everyone loves white rice, including me. But it’s really not that great for fibre, in fact, there’s only about one and a half grams fibre in it, and it doesn’t give you that diversity with all these other grains if you mix it up a bit,” he told his 580,000 followers. Try MEN Premium now for FREE… just click here to give it a go. Types of rice are ‘puny’ when it comes to the fibre content boasted by other grains, like rye grain which has nearly nine grams of fibre -around six times more than that of white rice, said Tim. ‘Diversity is the key, really experiment and have fun’, said the diet expert of planning meals which include grains. “If you’re looking to improve your gut health by increasing your plant and fibre intake, a really simple strategy is to mix up your grains,” said Tim on his Instagram. “While white rice is delicious and easy to cook, compared to some of the other grains available it doesn’t contain much fibre, around 1.7g/100g. “Swapping for brown or red rice will increase the fibre you’re getting to around 2.5g/100g but compared with some other alternatives out there this amount is still small, especially in the context of consuming at least 30g of fibre per day. “Some of my favourites include pearl barley (4.5g/100g), rye grains (9.6g/100g), quinoa (4.2g/100g) and spelt (9.6g/100g). “A top tip is to cook a big batch of these grains at the beginning of the week and store them in the fridge to reheat and add to your meals, you can also purchase pre-cooked packets of grains for really speedy meals. The more grains you mix, the closer you’ll get to your 30 plants per week goal with very little effort.”
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