Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Wednesday, 24 March 2021.
Tagged: fibre, health, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, high fibre, nutrition
A diet rich in fibre is key for developing a healthy microbiome – which, in turn, helps with proper food digestion, metabolism regulation and boosting immune response. By creating bulky faeces, it also lowers the risk of constipation (an everyday headache for women).
More fibre can lower the likelihood of obesity, diverticulitis, haemorrhoids and diseases such as bowel cancer, heart disease and diabetes. That’s why it should pay a pivotal role in anyone’s diet.
Examples are All-Bran, Sultana Bran, Vita-Brits, Weet-Bix, Shredded Wheat, Weeties and many mueslis.
Fibre: 13 grams per ½ cup or a 45 g bowl of All-Bran or bran flakes
OR 7 grams per ¾ cup or a 45 g bowl of Sultana Bran
OR 4 grams per ¼ cup or a 30 g bowl of muesli
Fibre: 4-8 grams per ½ cup or 100 g cooked legumes
OR 7 grams per small can (130 grams)
Fibre: 2 grams per small banana
Fibre: 2 grams per punnet 75 g blueberries
Other high-fibre fruit are pears, prunes and any of the berries.
Wholemeal or grain bread is one way. Rice is hard, adapting to brown rice isn’t easy and it doesn’t give you that much more fibre. Wholemeal pasta gives you about four times more fibre than white pasta.
Fibre: 4 grams from 2 slices of wholemeal or mixed grain or white high-fibre bread
Fibre: 3 grams from a small carrot
Almost all vegetables contain significant amounts of fibre. Other notable examples are green peas, sweetcorn, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, taro and kumera (orange sweet potato).
Fibre: 2 grams per 30 gram snack (a handful) of almonds, walnuts or Brazil nuts
Most nuts are good sources of fibre so really add any nut (whether pistachio or cashews) works well here.
Fibre: 2 grams per cup - which weighs only 8 grams
Fibre: 2 grams per bowl
Try my Do-nothing lamb and legume soup.
Here I mean apple and rhubarb crumble rather than cheesecake. Ice-cream with stewed plums, rather than plum pudding.
Fibre: 5 grams per serve
Fibre: 6 grams for a tablespoon 15 grams
All seeds are high in fibre but chia are particularly good. Other good choices are linseeds (flaxseeds), sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
Here’s what we need for different ages and stages, according to the Nutrient Reference Values:
You can reach this goal of 25 to 30 grams a day by selecting:
a bowl of bran cereal
+
2 slices wholemeal or grainy bread
+
2 pieces of fruit
+
1 serve of vegetables
+
1 cob of corn
Already hitting your 30 grams of fibre a day? It’s not necessarily the ‘golden’ number, so why not try getting more, say 50 grams – our ancestors had around 100 grams of fibre a day.
Try adding any of the above foods to easily increase your fibre intake. Fibre is an important nutrient that promotes a healthy microbiome, boosts weight loss, lowers blood sugar levels and fights constipation.
A word of warning however – do this gradually especially in the early stages, say over the first 3 days, and drink lots of water to prevent gassiness and bloating and get your body used to more fibre.
Click here to buy a List of Foods high in fibre.
© 2024 Foodwatch Australia. All rights reserved
Author photo by Kate Williams
Website by Joomstore eCommerce