As anyone diagnosed with celiac disease knows well, a gluten-free diet can present a challenges when having to avoid food with wheat, barley, and rye. Many other people without celiac may also choose to a eat gluten free diet for a variety of other health concerns. Whatever the reasons for adopting a gluten-free diet, the diet itself can present some nutritional challenges such as getting adequate dietary fiber. Because many gluten free breads and baked goods use substitute flours that have a higher than usual starch content and less dietary fiber than traditional multigrain breads or pastas, this can create issues with constipation.
Diet therapy is a very important element of managing all types of digestive diseases. Patients often ask me for dietary management options for issues such as constipation as an alternative to using medications. What I often counsel patients is to focus on choosing foods that are already naturally gluten free such as fruits and vegetables, which also happen to provide additional dietary fiber. In fact, I counsel all my patients – even those not on a gluten free diet – to eat a diet filled with fruits and vegetables. An easy way to remember is to “eat from the perimeter of the grocery store” as a general rule of thumb.
But what fruits and vegetables are the best to get additional fiber in your diet? While the usual suspects of broccoli, lentils, beets and apples are all great options, more exotic fruits can actually provide just as much fiber and digestive benefits when added into daily diet. In fact, some recent studies on constipation and irritable bowel syndrome have shown that Kiwifruit may be a natural remedy.
In 2 studies presented at the 2018 Digestive Disease Week, researchers in Italy and New Zealand, which perhaps non-coincidentally are the top two exporting countries of kiwi in the world) found that incorporation of kiwifruit into the diet could replace the use of daily medication for the management of digestive distress. In the studies, patients with irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and healthy volunteers were given either 2 kiwi per day, or psyllium (fiber supplement) for 4 weeks. The results showed that the group ate kiwi had better results, with the researchers proposing that kiwis are comparable if not more effective than psyllium fiber supplements for constipation and irritable bowel syndrome.
So how can you incorporate more (or any) kiwi into your diet? While some people like to eat kiwis with the skin on (myself included) and it does add some additional fiber the fuzzy skin can be peeled and still have the same effect according to Prof. Giovanni Barbara, M.D., the author of one of the studies. In addition to finding them in the produce section of your favorite grocery store, many warehouse clubs such as Costco or Sam’s Club sell kiwi in bulk. Kiwis are a great addition to any fruit salad, are delicious when incorporated in a morning smoothie (try this kid-friendly kiwi, banana, avocado and spinach green smoothie), and are even great in baked goods (try this kiwi tart, but substitute the flour in the pastry recipe for your favorite gluten-free mix such as Cup for Cup or Bob’s Red Mill). And while I doubt that there would be any dietary fiber benefits of this white kiwi sangria recipe, it looks like it would be a fun addition to any party (make kid-friendly by swapping orange juice for the orange liquor and sparkling white grape juice for the wine)!
Sources
“Kiwi Fruit” by Sandra Cox, source: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-kiwi-fruit-sandra-cox.html
Cesare Cremon, Juliet Ansell, Isabella Pagano, Barbara Kuhn-Sherlock, Lynley Drummond, M. Raffaella Barbaro, Eleonora Capelli, Lara Bellacosa, and others. A Randomized, Controlled, Single-Blind, Cross-Over Study Assessing the Effect of Green Kiwifruit on Digestive Functions and Microbiota in Constipated Patients. Gastroenterology, Vol. 154, Issue 6, S-565–S-566 https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(18)32081-X/fulltext
Giovanni Barbara, Shin Fukudo, Lynley Drummond, Barbara Kuhn-Sherlock, Juliet Ansell, Richard Gearry. Green Kiwifruit Compared to Psyllium for the Relief of Constipation and Improving Digestive Comfort in Patients with Functional Constipation and Constipation Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome — Analysis of Three International Trial Centres. Gastroenterology, Vol. 154, Issue 6, S-979–S-980 https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(18)33288-8/fulltext