Cancer, be it the number 1 killer at Singapore is affecting people at younger age now.
Among all the cancer, Colorectal cancer is the Top 1 who is affecting the population.
Source: https://www.singhealth.com.sg/TomorrowsMed/Article/Pages/Sharpriseinnumberdiagnosedwithcancer.aspx
1 in 5 Colon Cancer Cases are Young Adults
Constipation is normally one of the biggest factor that causes Colorectal cancer.
How do we know we have constipation?
1. If we aren't able to go to toilet daily
2. If we feel difficult to go toilet daily
3. If our stool is smelly even if we go toilet daily
4. If we still feel bloated even if we go toilet daily
All in all, it has to do with the amount of fibers that we take take daily. Due to the modern lifestyle, we are seriously lack of fiber in our diet.
According to Health Promotion Board, average Singaporean consumes 13 grams of dietary fiber per day. Recommended amount is 30 grams a day
Source: https://www.singhealth.com.sg/PatientCare/ConditionsAndTreatments/Pages/High-Fibre-Diet.aspx
How do we know how much fiber are we taking daily?
Let's look at fiber type
Let's look at the fiber amount for various food
Say if we eat 1 medium Apple, including skin. It's only 2 gram of fibers.
The daily requirement is 30 grams
If we are going to keep the doctor away, we need 15 Apples daily
You can check the fiber amount easily by google:
Fiber in xxx (food you want to check)
To better illustrates 100g, look at this picture. This is 100g of Oat
Let's look at a healthy Singaporean daily meal, and to know how much fibers are there?
You can use above method to check on fibers
For example:
Breakfast
- 1 medium cup of oat (10g) - 1.1g
- 1 Banana - 2g
- 2 Slices of bread - 1.5g
= 4.6g fiber
Lunch
- Rice with 2 servings of vegetables (Spinach and Cabbage) + 1 serving of meat
- 1 slice of Papaya
= 4g fiber
100g of spinach gives 2.2g of fiber.
To give you illustration of 100g of spinach, which is whole packet. Normally we buy 1 packet and shared among family, which is definitely less than 100g of fibers, at most 30g of fibers
Dinner
- Noodle soup with some vegetables and mushroom
- 1 apple and 1 orange
= 5 g of fiber
Total fiber: 13.6 g of fiber
Recommended intake = 25 - 30g. Even a healthy person only fulfilled 50% of the fiber needed
Insufficient fiber intake easily cause constipation, looking at the diet habit above, it's understandable why constipation has become so common nowadays.
If we step into the food court or any food center, you may realize that the food choices we have is lack of fiber.
Food such as Chicken rice, Ban Mian, Duck Rice, Fried Noodle/Carrot Cake, Japanese Food, Beef Noodle, etc
Many have suffered from Haemorrhoid after experiencing chronic constipation for a period of time
The above problem easily lead to Colon Cancer if it's not being rectify.
There are many fiber products available in the market to help to solve the constipation problem. Most of the products are "effective", but is it safe?
For example, some gives laxative effects to clear the bowel by stimulating the bowel movement. Laxative effects give rise to many health problems in the long run.
Read up here
Thus, it's important for us to read label to understand what we are putting into our body
My friend shows me this label of a product she took
It looks herbal, natural and seems healthy. However, she experiences laxative effect after taking it
So I went to check the ingredients, One of the ingredient Follium Cassia Angustifolia is a laxative which can cause serious health issue, such as heart disease
Beside laxative, some even consume probiotic to help in bowel movement. Yet, do you know what are the risk associated in Probiotic? Read up here
Be a wise consumer, learn to read product label to identify what ingredients is that in the products, so that beside effective, it's safe for our consumption as well.
Which will you choose based on below ingredient label?
Left or Right? Why?
How to increase our fiber intake through fruits and vegetable in a very convenient way?
I choose to take following for my regular bowel
1. Every Stay D - Which is high in fibers and protein for convenience
2. Vege Color - Which contains 28 types of fruits and vegetables in 5 different colors
PM to find out more
Cheers
Siew Choon
Nutritional Immunology Consultant
90263064
