Activities
Investigating Brown Flour
Fibre is an important part of our daily diet. One reason for this is that it absorbs moisture and swells up. This is good because it:
- makes us feel full
- prevents constipation
- helps to remove some harmful chemicals from our intestine
Wholemeal flour contains a lot of fibre, so eating wholemeal bread, pasta and cereals is important for a healthy digestive system.
Your Task
- Think of an experiment to compare how much water is absorbed by brown and white flour.
- To help, you can use common laboratory apparatus such as funnels, measuring cylinders and filter papers.
- Try to do your experiment accurately enough to be able to measure the percentage of water that is absorbed by each type of flour.
- Write a short report on your experiment describing what you did, your results and conclusions.
Things to try
1. Find out the difference between soluble and insoluble fibre.
2. Fibre is useful because it helps us to feel full up. Why can feeling full be useful for a healthy diet?
3. What is the recommended daily amount of fibre for a person’s diet? Suggest some simple ways that a fourteen-year-old could increase the amount of fibre in their diet.
4. If you increase the amount of fibre you eat you will also be recommended to increase your fluid intake. Why is this?
