STEFAN GATES:
Right, let's sprinkle a little digestive stardust on your food by looking at fibre. You've heard the word and you've heard it's good for you, so I'm here to tell you why.
The first thing you need to know is that fibre comes from plant-based foods, from lovely fruity fruit and veggie vegetables, as well as things made of wheat and oats. Now, eating a good amount of fibre keeps you fuller for longer. All of this is brilliant news when you're up at the crack of dawn entertaining the nation.
TWIN B:
What's happening? I'm Twin B, 1Xtra Breakfast DJ. Doing the 1Xtra Breakfast Show is something that I love doing. I thoroughly enjoy it. I've been doing it for two-and-a-half years now. Mm-mm-mm. We are going to make Friday sound oh, so good. I love the fact that I can get to be me, have fun, have a laugh with people who I consider my friends, like my co-host Yasmin Evans, and talk about random things. I didn't know I had wings until he made me try and flap 'em.
Meal of the day for me is definitely breakfast, because doing the 1Xtra Breakfast Show, you've got to have energy, you've got to sound up. When a song comes on that I love, I want to dance, man, I want to move. Ooh, yeah.
JADE:
Do you want some breakfast?
YASMIN:
I would love some food!
JADE:
Yeah? Wicked. What are you having today? What are you having today, Twin?
YASMIN:
When it comes to breakfast, he'll have his usual. Porridge. Maybe, sometimes, a pot of jam. An espresso sometimes. Sometimes, pieces of mango, fresh mango with a squeeze of lime. Juicy, juicy mango. Mm! Jam on toast.
TWIN B:
Food, glorious food. # Right, breakfast time. Jade has come back with our order. Has Yasmin eaten hers? Clap for the kid. Clap for the kid, the standards are high. I've done a breakfast show, I've got a day to have now. Bye. See ya.
STEFAN GATES:
So Twin B eats loads of fibre. That'll keep him regular. Now food travels through your digestive system like a car down a road. It's fibre that controls the speed of the journey. These foods contain soluble fibre - soluble because it dissolves in water and crucially helps to slow down that journey of food through your body. Without it, you'd end up with diarrhoea.
On the other hand, these foods contain insoluble fibre, which doesn't dissolve in water. This stuff keeps things moving. Without it, your food would end up in a bit of a traffic jam, otherwise known as constipation. It's a balancing act between soluble and insoluble, but either way there is a by-product to using fibre as the fuel for our food's journey. Let's call them emissions.
Now this is basically a lab version of your colon. You can see these big conical flasks full of this brown muck. That's essentially poo. If you look really closely at the flasks, you can see these tiny bubbles rising up. The bubbles are caused by bacteria feeding on the fibre in this laboratory digestive system. Bubbles are of course gas, which I'm collecting through these tubes. It's a mix of gases, but the main ones are hydrogen and methane, which are flammable.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to blow this over a naked flame and see what happens. Remember, this flame was produced by the gas created by bacteria feeding on fibre. If you don't eat fibre, the good bacteria still need feeding and can turn bad. Then a lack of fibre will be more serious than diarrhoea, constipation or a little bit of farting.
Video summary
Radio 1Xtra DJ Twin B explains how his breakfast rich in fibre gives him the energy for his show. Meanwhile, Stefan Gates uses a chemical replica of your gut to show how fibre creates gas.
The importance of soluble and insoluble dietary fibre in the diet, rich food sources, and its function in the body are discussed.
The difference between soluble and insoluble fibre is explained, and the way each of these relates to the speed of movement through the digestive tract to prevent constipation and diarrhoea.
An experiment shows the gas produced by bacteria in the colon.
This short film is from the BBC series, Gastro Lab.
Teacher Notes
You could task your students with evaluating their daily food intake for fibre content.
Take your favourite snack. How much fibre do you think it contains? How many plant based foods are in the recipe? Look up which foods are high in fibre and see if you can adapt your recipe to increase the fibre content.
Students can be asked to make a display to show the dietary fibre content per portion of a selection of foods (for example, breakfast cereal, porridge oats, apple, nuts, lentils, biscuits).
How could you increase the amount of fibre that you can eat each day?
This short film is relevant for teaching biology and food technology at Key Stage 3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 3rd Level in Scotland.
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