Insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) activates the peristaltic movement of the large intestine

Foods with plenty of insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) soak up water to soften stools that will be swollen at the same time in your digestive system. It helps stimulating the intestinal wall to make active peristaltic movements of the large intestine, pushing feces out smoothly to improve your bowel movements.

In Azuki beans, the insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) accounts for about 90 percent of the whole dietary fiber. Beans contain much of it by far among the foods rich in dietary fiber.

What is even more amazing is that the amount of dietary fiber in Azuki beans grows by boiling, which is different from vegetables.

Boiling Azuki beans expands insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) by 50 percent

One hundred grams of raw Azuki beans contain 17.8 grams of dietary fiber, which will be 11.8 grams once the beans are boiled, according to the Japanese Standard Tables of Food Composition. It seems a decline at first glance, but the moisture content of the beans is 15.5 grams out of 100 grams before boiling, whereas it is 64.8 grams after boiling, more than four times.

It found that 21.1 grams of dietary fiber in 100 grams of raw Azuki beans increase to as much as 33.5 grams after boiling when comparing the figures as the solid content except moisture (at dry matter conversion). Surprisingly, it does expand 50 percent by boiling.

This is because the starch contained in Azuki beans changes into indigestible starch called resistant starch through boiling, becoming into dietary fiber, an ingredient which is hardly digested by the human digestive enzymes. It can explain how plenty Azuki beans contain dietary fiber.

I would like to recommend those who are suffering from constipation to try Azuki beans first, rather than to rely on constipation medicines easily. Not only meals like red bean rice, but also Japanese sweets with Azuki-bean paste as snacks would help.

Intake of Azuki beans for three to seven days will definitely work. Such painful and uncomfortable constipation should be resolved, and you must realize how smoothly you can pass it.

Written by Jun Kato PhD.