So you just found out you’re supposed to be eating more fiber.
Not just drinking a scoop of Metamucil every day (that’s great too), but actually eating more foods that naturally have fiber in them.
Then you look up lettuce (’cause salads have fiber, right?) and you see that a serving only has 0.5 grams.
That gets you NOWHERE towards your 25 gram/day goal if you’re a female (or 38 g/day if you’re a male).
Shoot.
Berries must have fiber, right?
You look up blueberries, a “superfood” that must be the one thing you can just add to your diet to check this fiber box.
Four grams per cup?! That’s IT?! I can’t eat 6 cups of blueberries every day!!
How do I do this? How do I get enough fiber in my diet?
Here are some of the most fiber-filled foods you can easily find at the store, along with some ideas to make it easy to eat more of them.
- BEANS. A whopping 15 grams of fiber per cup cooked. I used to eat no beans per week, and now I can pretty easily get them into 3-ish dinners each week, either by making a dish centered on beans or just adding a can to something I was already going to make (pasta, stew, soup, salad…). EAT MORE BEANS. Slowly, so your body can adjust. Start with small servings and work your way up.
- LENTILS. Similar to beans, lentils make a gigantic contribution to your daily fiber intake (~10-15 g per cup). And I’ve found they’re a bit easier on the tummy if you’re not used to legumes yet. EAT MORE LENTILS.
- Avocado. I was surprised to learn that a whole avocado, which I can easily eat, has between 9 and 14 grams of fiber depending on its size. Dang! Throw that on my salad! And everything else!
- Whole wheat pasta. This is my family’s saving grace. When I used to cook refined-grain pasta (the normal kind), spaghetti would give us ~4 g fiber per serving. After switching to whole wheat pasta and adding mushrooms, a serving of my spaghetti has 8.5 g fiber (and I usually go back for seconds, so I get about 17 grams at dinner alone on these nights). Fewer ice cream cravings after dinner with this hack.
- Whole wheat bread. Same as above, just switching to whole wheat bread makes your sandwiches very fibrous. The bread I buy has 5 g/slice, so that’s an easy 10-gram sandwich right there.
- Oatmeal. The amount of fiber depends on how much you can eat. I can eat a lot (one cup dry, about 8 grams), but a serving is probably half that technically. Just eat two servings! Mind over matter. And adding fruits, nuts, dates, cinnamon, milk (dairy or not) makes it delicious. I’ve also found recently that oatmeal is excellent in green smoothies (weird, right? Try it! Just pour some boiling water over the oats (the quick 1-minute kind), let them sit for a few minutes, then dump ’em in the blender with spinach, banana, some water or juice, maybe a scoop of whey or yogurt, peanut butter, or whatever else you want). Then you can drink it instead of eating gobs and still feel full for hours.
- Chia seeds. While pricey, you don’t need to eat a lot of them to get the benefits. Just add a tablespoon to oatmeal, yogurt, a smoothie, or even a beverage like water or kombucha and reward yourself with 4 extra grams of fiber. PLUS a good dose of those beautiful omega-3 fatty acids that we all need more of. Set them out on your counter in a pretty jar to remind you to add them in to things.
- Bran cereal. My go-to these days. I eat a bowl of this almost every morning (not raisin bran, which has a s*** ton of sugar added, but just “Bran Flakes” and then I add my own raisins or bananas if I want. Check the food label). Whole grains baybay. I usually eat two servings, which comes out to ~14 grams of fiber.
Eat these foods every week– heck, every DAY– and you’ll be in pre-tty darn good shape.
Of course, all plants have some fiber. So just focus on getting more plants into your body in general and you’ll be giving your body a wonderful gift!
Want fiber-heavy recipes, kitchen hacks, and healthy meal tips? Put your email in and I’ll send ’em your way!