dōTERRA Fibre

What it does

Fibre is the part of plant food your small intestine cannot break down. There simply are no enzymes for it. So it arrives in your large intestine undigested, which is exactly the point.

Around a hundred trillion bacteria live down there, and they eat what you couldn't. They ferment the fibre, and out of that come short-chain fatty acids: acetate, propionate and butyrate. Butyrate is the main fuel for the cells of your gut wall itself. Your gut bacteria are, in other words, the only housemates who are genuinely delighted by a plate of sprouts.

Those short-chain fatty acids do something else too. They bind to receptors on the L-cells in your gut wall, and those L-cells then release two hormones: GLP-1 and PYY. They slow your stomach emptying and report to the hypothalamus, the satiety centre in your brain, that there's enough. That system is already yours, and it runs on whatever you feed it.

This tub holds both kinds. Soluble from tapioca starch, inulin, oligofructose, baobab and Jerusalem artichoke; insoluble from apple fibre, flaxseed and psyllium husk. Plus lemon oil for the taste and a little vitamin C.

It dissolves completely. No gritty film on your teeth, no sludge at the bottom of the glass, and that matters more than it sounds: a scoop you find unpleasant is a scoop you skip on day four, and then it does nothing for you at all.