Bran is readily available in supermarkets. Photo: Supplied.
BY DR ROGER DOWN, MBBS, FRCS, FRACS, MD (LOND)
Research shows that a high-roughage diet prevents cancer. It is also essential for the prevention and treatment of other colorectal conditions.
Irritable bowel syndrome and diverticular disease, and anal problems, are a direct consequence of a low roughage diet, and/or the inappropriate use of laxatives portrayed by ‘Big Pharma’ as ‘the solution to all your bowel problems’. Nothing could be further from the truth or medical research and science.
A high fibre content in the diet increases the volume of stool waste and supplies the large bowel with the mass it needs to function normally. Our bowels continuously contract, resulting in stool evacuation, which varies from person to person, from two to three times per day to once every two to three days. Your bowels do NOT have to open daily. We are all individuals.
Irritable bowel syndrome, diverticula disease (present in 70% of people over 50 years), and most anal conditions are caused by a low roughage diet, as the food manufacturers remove most of this, and we throw the peel of vegetables and fruit into the trash!
Research has categorically shown that for the bowel to function normally, a decent quantity of roughage is essential for health. If you are passing pellets or soft stools all the time, you are not getting the roughage your body needs. The sign of a healthy bowel is the intermittent passage of a good German sausage-sized stool. Why?
Irritable bowel syndrome and diverticular disease are the result of the bowel generating excessively high pressures because it has no substrate to mould. This causes colicky pain and/or herniation of the bowel wall (diverticula), and of the lining, usually alongside the site of blood vessels entering the bowel wall. Both can have serious consequences for mortality. They are easily managed by increasing the amount of roughage in the diet. Do NOT take pharmaceutical laxative medicines, which will only exacerbate the problem.
How? Take a tablespoon of unprocessed bran, place it in a dish, and add either yoghurt, ice cream, or custard to it. Place it covered with Cling wrap in the fridge overnight to absorb the moisture. Add it to your regular cereal or porridge the next morning, and add some fresh fruit salad/tinned fruit. It is delicious!
The use of pharmaceutical products, agents or softeners only exacerbates symptoms and advances pathology, increasing the likelihood of complications. These products contain a drug that gradually destroys the nerve supply to the bowel wall and discolours the lining black – a serious problem.
God bless your bowels!
