Every Pure Bites article tagged fibre.
Nutrition & health
Is til as good for bones and health as people say, and how much should I eat?
Whole sesame carries 975 mg of calcium and 14.6 mg of iron per 100 g, with 17.7 g of protein and mostly unsaturated fat. Hulled sesame has far less calcium. What trials say about blood pressure, and what jaggery does to a chikki.
Smart snacking
What can a person with diabetes eat in the evening that will not spike blood sugar?
Pulses and nuts have trial evidence behind them, though the effects are modest. Makhana has one small study. Fried namkeen and “sugar-free” biscuits have none. An honest 5 pm list for someone managing blood sugar, from a kitchen that sells fried snacks.
Nutrition & health
Is rajgira actually healthier than wheat, or is it just allowed during fasts?
Rajgira is the fasting grain that outscores wheat on protein, iron and magnesium, carries the amino acid most grains lack, and has no gluten. Nine benefits with the numbers per 100 g, what the evidence supports, and how to cook it so it is not a paste.
Recipes & food ideas
I want to eat millets but I am bored of bajra roti — how else can I use them?
Millets are the grain India rediscovered and then put back into roti. They are better as a grain bowl: cooked, cooled, dressed with lemon, tossed with pulses and vegetables — a lunch that travels, holds, and carries the fibre and minerals millets are famous for. Three bowls, with the numbers.
Nutrition & health
What should I eat for gut health — do I need probiotics, or is there something in normal Indian food?
Sixty-one percent of Indian consumers now say gut health matters to them, and most of what they are sold for it is a bottle. The foods that actually feed a healthy gut are already in the kitchen: chaas, curd, dal, sprouts, onion, oats, bananas. What each does, what the science supports, and what it does not.
Nutrition & health
I keep hearing about fibermaxxing — how much fibre should I eat and what Indian foods have it?
“Fibermaxxing” is the year’s nutrition trend — deliberately eating a lot of fibre for gut, blood sugar and fullness. The Indian plate was doing this before it had a name. Here is what 30 g a day looks like in dal, sabzi, fruit and roti, and how to get there without a week of bloating.
Nutrition & health
Is rajma actually healthy, or just filling?
Nine things rajma does well — protein, fibre, iron, folate — with the numbers per 100 g, what the trials actually found on cholesterol and blood sugar, and the one cooking rule that is not optional.
Nutrition & health
Why do doctors always say “eat moong dal”?
Why mung dal is the pulse recommended for sick days and weekday lunches alike: 7 g protein and 7.6 g fibre per 100 g, easy digestion, folate, and what the pulse trials actually show.
Nutrition & health
Which dal has the most iron and protein?
Lentils are the highest-iron everyday pulse — 3.3 mg per 100 g cooked — with 9 g protein, 7.9 g fibre and 181 µg folate, and they cook in fifteen minutes with no soak. The numbers, the trials, and what the kitchen does with them.
Nutrition & health
Is pomegranate really a superfood?
What a katori of pomegranate arils actually carries — 4 g fibre, vitamin C, potassium and the polyphenols the “superfood” claims rest on — with the numbers, what the research shows so far, and where the claims outrun it.
Nutrition & health
Are chickpeas good for protein if I don’t eat meat?
Chickpeas are the most protein-dense everyday pulse per katori: 8.9 g protein and 7.6 g fibre per 100 g cooked. What that does for fullness, cholesterol and blood sugar in trials, plus iron, folate and the boiling rule.
Nutrition & health
Is broccoli actually that much better than cabbage or cauliflower?
Broccoli carries 89 mg of vitamin C and a day’s vitamin K in 100 g for 34 kcal, plus folate, fibre and the sulforaphane the research is excited about. The numbers, the evidence, and how to cook it so the vitamins survive.
Nutrition & health
People say besan snacks are “healthier” and I want to know whether that is true.
Besan carries real protein and fibre, which is more than most snack flours can say. Here are the numbers, and an honest account of what frying does to the picture.
Nutrition & health
I eat a full lunch and I’m hungry again by half past three.
A big lunch that leaves you raiding a drawer at 3.30 is usually missing one of four things. Here is how to work out which one, from the meal you already ate.
Nutrition & health
The numbers on a nutrition panel don’t tell me how the meal will actually feel.
Three numbers explain most of how a meal will make you feel. Here is what each one actually measures, what a normal day looks like, and why the calorie is the least useful of the three.
Nutrition & health
My salad looks healthy but I have no idea whether it is actually a meal.
A bowl of leaves is not a meal. Five components turn a salad into lunch that holds you until evening — and one of them is the part everyone gets wrong.
Nutrition & health
I know vegetables are good for me, but I don’t know what a daily bowl actually does.
A bowl of vegetables a day is one of the few eating habits almost every dietary guideline agrees on. Here is what it actually does for you — and what it does not.