Why Fibre Matters: The Nutrient We're Forgetting While Everyone Talks About Protein

If you've spent any time on social media lately, you've probably noticed that protein is having a very big moment. High-protein yoghurt. Protein cereal. Protein bread. Protein snacks. Protein desserts. Even Australian fast-food menus are now joining the “protein-maxxing” trend.

And protein is important.

We need it to build and repair body tissues, and it contributes to maintaining muscle mass. But when one nutrient starts dominating the nutrition conversation, it's easy to forget that good nutrition isn't a competition to consume the maximum possible amount of one thing.

There's another nutrient worth paying attention to: fibre.

What is Dietary Fibre?

Dietary fibre is found primarily in plant foods including vegetables, fruit, legumes, wholegrains, nuts and seeds. Unlike many other carbohydrates, fibre isn't completely broken down and absorbed in the small intestine. Some types of fibre move through the digestive system, helping support normal bowel function, while others are fermented by bacteria living in our large intestine.

That makes fibre important for far more than simply “keeping you regular”.

Why does fibre matter?

Higher intakes of fibre-rich foods are consistently associated with better health outcomes. Fibre contributes to digestive health and can help with satiety. Certain fibres also help moderate blood glucose and cholesterol levels. Importantly, eating plenty of fibre generally means you're also eating more plant foods, bringing vitamins, minerals and a huge variety of naturally occurring plant compounds along for the ride.

Do Australians eat enough?

For many people, the issue isn't that we need another specialised “high-fibre” product. It's that our everyday meals could simply contain more plants. A practical way to look at dinner is:

Where is the vegetable? Where is the wholegrain or legume? Could I add another plant?

That might mean adding chickpeas to a curry, lentils to a pasta sauce, choosing wholegrain bread, adding vegetables to scrambled eggs, sprinkling nuts or seeds over breakfast, or simply eating a piece of fruit. None of those things are particularly glamorous.

That's also the point.

Nutrition doesn't need to be extreme

Nutrition trends tend to make eating feel more complicated than it needs to be. Protein matters. So does fibre. So do carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and the overall variety of foods we eat. Instead of asking how we can maximise a single nutrient, a much more useful question is:

What could I add to this meal to make it more varied?

Often, the answer is simply another plant food. And unlike most nutrition trends, that's advice that doesn't need to go viral to be useful.