Easy Ways to Sneak Fiber Into Your Diet
Go for Avocadoes
A medium avocado has around 7 grams of fiber. They're delicious enough to eat alone, but they make a great topping for salads, tacos, and sandwiches. You can also use them instead of butter on whole-grain toast.
Sub in Hummus
Trade the ranch dip in the middle of that veggie tray at your next party for a dish of creamy hummus. You’ll get over a gram of fiber for every 2 tablespoons you eat. You can also give hummus a go instead of mayo on your next sandwich.
Start the Day With Fiber
Look for easy ways to add more roughage to your breakfast. Top cereal with fresh pear or apple slices (leave the skin on!), raisins, or almond slivers. Sprinkle chia seeds or wheat germ on your oatmeal or yogurt. Cook an omelet packed with a healthy helping of fiber-rich veggies like broccoli or squash.
Go Vegetarian
Not ready to switch to an entirely meatless menu? Try starting with one meatless day a week. Go heavy on legumes, nuts, whole grains, veggies, and fruits. A day without meat will give you a chance to fill up on other foods and raise your weekly fiber intake.
Bank on Beans
Beans pack a huge fiber punch. Mash them up as a spread on sandwiches or dip for veggies, sprinkle them on salads, or add them to your favorite soup. Switch to veggie burgers, which are often made from beans.
Switch to Whole Wheat Tortillas
When taco Tuesday rolls around, try whole wheat tortillas. They have nearly three times the fiber of a flour tortilla. Corn tortillas are a smart fiber choice, too -- they have double the amount of flour tortillas.
Think Fiber First
In one study, women who ate a salad before a meal instead of with it ended up eating a higher percentage of veggies overall. Downing the high-fiber part of your spread before reaching for other offerings makes it more likely you’ll fill up with roughage.
Choose High-Fiber Fruits
You should get around 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. One cup of raspberries can provide almost a third of that. Pick fruits based on their fiber content. Some heavy hitters include pears and apples with skin, figs, strawberries, blueberries, dried peaches, and oranges.
Rough(age) Up Your Snacks
If you’ve been reaching for carb-filled chips and crackers, choose fiber-friendly munchies instead. Popcorn, trail mix with almonds and raisins, hummus and carrots, and mixed nuts can give you a crunch while adding more grams of fiber.
Thicken Your Soups
Chances are there’s room for improvement in your go-to soups. Add extra legumes or beans, switch to whole-grain pastas, bump up the veggie portion, or use quinoa, bulgur, or barley instead of rice.
Boost Your Baked Goods
White flour only has a little over 3 grams of fiber per cup. Switching to buckwheat flour boosts the fiber to a whopping 12 grams a cup. Other good choices include almond flour at 8 grams a cup and brown rice flour at 7 grams a cup.
Look at Labels
Shop fiber smart. Compare nutrition info on similar products to see which one offers the most fiber. An extra gram here and there can really add up to boost the amount of overall fiber you get each day.
Sources Medically Reviewed on 01/22/2020 Reviewed by Christine Mikstas, RD, LD on January 22, 2020
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SOURCES:
Nutritional Journal: “A randomized 3x3 crossover study to evaluate the effect of Hass avocado intake on post-ingestive satiety, glucose and insulin levels, and subsequent energy intake in overweight adults.”
U.S. Department of Agriculture: “Almond Flour,” “Rice flour, brown,” “Buckwheat Flour,” “Seeds, chia seeds, dried,” “Hummus,” “Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, self-rising, enriched,” “Tortilla, corn,” “Tortilla, flour (wheat),” “Tortilla, whole wheat.”
UCSF Health: “Increasing Fiber Intake.”
Harvard Health: “How to get more fiber in your diet,” “How to sneak in more dietary fiber.”
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital: “Fiber In Foods Chart.”
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: “Going Meatless Once a Week.”
Johns Hopkins Medicine: “8 Ways to Sneak Fiber Into Your Diet.”
Appetite: “Salad and satiety: the effect of timing of salad consumption on meal energy intake.”
Mayo Clinic: “Chart of high-fiber foods.”
Reviewed by Christine Mikstas, RD, LD on January 22, 2020
This tool does not provide medical advice. See additional information.
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