We hear a lot about fibre.
Eat more fibre. Choose high-fibre foods. Get your 30g a day.
But what actually is fibre, why do we need it, and are all fibres the same?
It's particularly relevant to Panda because fibre isn't something we've simply added to our flour.
Fibre is the foundation of it.
How much fibre should we eat?
UK government guidance recommends an average intake of 30g of fibre per day for adults as part of a healthy, balanced diet. GOV.UK
And most of us aren't getting close.
The latest UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey found average adult intakes of only around 16–17g per day. Just 4% of adults surveyed met the fibre recommendation. GOV.UK
So there's a fairly substantial gap between the amount we're advised to eat and the amount most of us actually consume.
Why do we need fibre?
At its simplest, fibre is the part of plant foods that isn't digested and absorbed in the same way as sugars and starches.
Rather than thinking of fibre as one single ingredient, though, it's better to think of it as a family of different plant fibres.
Different fibres behave differently.
Some absorb water. Some form gels. Some add bulk. Some are used by the bacteria living in our gut.
That's one reason UK guidance recommends getting fibre from a variety of food sources, rather than relying on one particular source. GOV.UK
The NHS describes eating plenty of fibre as part of a healthy balanced diet and says it is associated with several long-term health benefits. It also recommends increasing fibre gradually and drinking plenty of fluids. nhs.uk
Soluble and insoluble fibre – what's the difference?
You'll often hear fibre divided into two groups.
Soluble fibre interacts with water and some types can form a soft gel. You'll find soluble fibres in foods such as oats, beans, fruit and seeds.
Insoluble fibre doesn't dissolve in water in the same way. It provides bulk and is found in foods including wholegrains, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
It's a useful distinction, although modern fibre science is actually a little more complicated than simply putting every fibre into one of these two boxes. PubMed Central (PMC)
And that brings us to Panda.
Where does the fibre in Panda Flour come from?
Original Panda Flour® is approximately 75% fibre.
That's because its three main ingredients are themselves naturally rich sources of fibre:
Bamboo Fibre
Bamboo fibre provides a large amount of the insoluble fibre in Panda.
It's extremely fine and very absorbent. In our baking, it helps us create volume and structure without filling the recipe with conventional flour or refined starch.
Coconut Flour
Coconut flour brings another source of plant fibre as well as contributing to the way Original Panda Flour absorbs moisture and behaves in a recipe.
Anyone who has baked with coconut flour on its own will already know just how thirsty it can be!
Psyllium Husk
And then we have perhaps the most interesting fibre in Panda: psyllium.
Psyllium comes from the husks of the seeds of the Plantago ovata plant.
When psyllium meets water, it can absorb it and form a soft, viscous gel. PubMed Central (PMC)
That's enormously useful to us as bakers.
Remember, Panda doesn't contain gluten or gums. We therefore need another way of holding water and helping our ingredients form a workable structure.
Psyllium plays an important part in doing that.
It's why you can add water to Panda Flour and watch something quite remarkable happen: those dry fibres hydrate and begin coming together into something we can actually turn into bread, pastry, wraps, pasta and cakes.
Psyllium isn't simply there so that we can put a bigger fibre number on the packet.
It has a job to do.
Fibre instead of starch
And this brings us back to the idea behind Panda.
Most conventional baking begins with a flour whose largest component is starch. Many gluten-free flours remove the wheat but still rely heavily on alternative starches.
Panda takes a different approach.
What happens if, instead of building our flour around starch, we build it around fibre?
It means our recipes behave differently.
They need considerably more moisture. They don't knead, prove or bake exactly like conventional flour. Different fibres have different jobs within the blend.
But once you understand those differences, something rather exciting happens.
You can start making the foods you've been missing — while making fibre a much bigger part of what you're eating.
It's not about eating one ingredient
There's an important final point.
We're certainly not suggesting that Panda should provide all the fibre in your diet.
Official UK guidance recommends getting fibre from a variety of sources, including fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, nuts and seeds. GOV.UK
Panda simply gives us another way to bring fibre into the foods we make.
And perhaps that's the easiest way to understand the whole Panda idea.
Most baking starts with starch.
We decided to start with fibre.