Roughage is otherwise known as dietary fiber and is important to eat because it helps your intestinal tract to work correctly.
There are muscular movements happening in your digestive tract at all times, this is known as Peristalsis. This ensures your food is mixed with the digestive juices in your system and the peristalsis also ensures the food is moved along the digestive tract. If these movements are not working correctly your food is unable to move at the correct rate and this means you get excessive water absorption and your faeces become too hard and dry causing constipation.
However, if you up your intake of fiber or roughage as well as drinking plenty of water you will improve the workings of the peristaltic movements. You may be wondering how to up your intake of roughage to ensure that you don’t end up constipated. First you need to know that there are two types of fiber – these are insoluble and soluble. The insoluble fibers are found in wheat products such as cereals, bran and green vegetables. In fact, some skins of fruits such as the tomato are also high in dietary fiber – so just another reason you should actually eat the skin on your fruit. The soluble fibers are found in legumes and in some vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, onions and potatoes. Fruit pulps and fruits juices are also high in soluble fibers so ensure you add these to your diet. Once you add these to your diet you will find that the peristalsis movements work correctly and your bowel movements become regular and soft.