Put your culinary skills to the test in our Great Fibre-Off recipe contest. Image: Nature Valley.
If you’re guilty of indulging in one too many mince pies over the festive season, you’re not alone. Last year, it was estimated that the average Aussie adult would gain about 1.1kg over the Christmas period, and consume almost twice as many alcoholic beverages as they normally would. On a national scale, this means we would’ve gained more than 10,800kg and drunk more than 62.2 million standard drinks.
Time to repair the damage.
But where does one start? We suggest tackling the issue from the bottom up. Yep, we are, of course, talking about your guts.
You might not realise, but your gut plays a vital role in maintaining your health and wellbeing. It holds trillions of tiny bacteria that help process your food and produce essential nutrients. A healthy gut can even help you stress less.
You can find our BARLEYmax grain in breakfast cereals, rice blends and loaf bread.
One of the best ways to keep your guts in tip-top shape is by eating a mix of dietary fibres, including resistant starch.
Resistant starch is found in foods like legumes, firm bananas, rice and our very own BARLEYmax™ grain. It helps keep you regular, encourages healthy bacteria and can even lower the risk of bowel cancer. And since Australia has one of the highest rates of this disease in the world, there’s even more reason to get some fibre in your belly.
We think you should be eating about 20 grams of resistant starch per day, but most people only eat around ¼ of that amount. So today we present you a challenge: join the Great Fibre-Off.
Your mission – if you choose to accept it – is to make a delicious high fibre meal, snap a picture of it and pop it on Pinterest. It could be anything from a zesty potato salad to a creamy brown rice pudding or a colourful bean salad.
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- Three bean salad. Image: Paul Goyette
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- Brown rice pudding. Image: esimpraim
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- Muesli scones with dried fruit and nuts. Image: elana’s pantry
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- Wholemeal chickpea sliders. Image: Aida Mollenkamp
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- Warm chickpea salad with rosemary and garlic. Image: Andy Schultz
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- Black bean, edamame and barley salad. Image: Elle_Ann
Just follow these easy steps and you could win a Total Wellbeing prize pack valued over $300:
1. Cook up a healthy high fibre dish
2. Snap a pic and give it a quick description, then either:
- Send it to socialmedia@csiro.au
- Pin it and tweet the link using #CSIROhealth
3. Follow our Total Wellbeing Community Pinterest board to see all the entries
Our resident health experts will judge the dishes based on their estimated fibre content, creativity and appearance. There are four prize packs up for grabs, including a collection of our Total Wellbeing Diet recipe books, tasty Goodness Superfoods treats and a fitness goodie pack. Plus, if the recipe is original, we’ll turn it into one of our pretty health bites and host it right here on the blog.
So go on, show your guts some love.
This competition is part of our campaign highlighting our work in health and nutrition. Find out more with our interactive infographic.
Entries are now closed. Congrats to our overall winner Donna Pearce, and runners up Helen Indorato, Peter Arnold and Paula Martinez! Check out their winning dishes on our Total Wellbeing Community board.
