Fiber Focus: The Top Foods and Supplements to Keep You Regular
Don’t underestimate the power of fiber for your overall health! Fiber is beneficial to your health by regulating bowel movements and lowering your risk of several diseases, including obesity, heart disease, type two diabetes, stroke, and some cancers.
Unfortunately, many people do not consume half of the recommended daily intake of dietary fiber. Foods like pasta, bread, sandwiches, and sweets often lack any substantial amount of fiber. And these are foods many of us tend to consume in excess in our diet. If only celery was as crave-worthy as a slice of pizza.
Fiber is beneficial for weight management. High-fiber foods tend to be more filling and satisfying than low-fiber foods, which can help to control appetite and reduce overall calorie intake. This can be helpful for maintaining your weight and preventing obesity.
Fiber can also help lower cholesterol levels by binding to cholesterol in the digestive tract and preventing it from being absorbed into the bloodstream. In this way, fiber helps lower your risk for heart disease.
It is important to understand that most fiber is not digested or absorbed by you. Instead, fiber is fuel for your gut microbiome, acting as an prebiotic. This can help to improve gut health, boost your immune function, and reduce the risk of inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and other digestive disorders.
The low fiber content of the standard American diet contributes greatly to the number of individuals who are overweight, inflamed, and at high risk for chronic disease. A low fiber diet is associated with poor health outcomes because your gut microbiome suffers and impairs immune function and cellular energy production. Adequate fiber in your diet is an essential component of establishing health.
You can find high amounts of fiber in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and seeds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends adults eat an average of 25-35 grams of dietary fiber daily.
It is important to gradually increase your fiber and drink plenty of water to help minimize the bloating, gas, or constipation associated with fiber intake changes. Your gut microbiome needs time to adapt to your increased fiber intake. Once adapted, your body should be able to digest high fiber foods without the discomfort associated with this dietary change.
Which foods are high in dietary fiber, you may be wondering? Below includes a detailed list and chart of foods with the servings size and grams of total dietary fiber.
Lentils (half cup) 7.8 grams
Pear (large, raw) 7.13 grams
Avocado (half of one) 6.75 grams
Apple (large, raw, with skin) 5.35 grams
Black Beans (half cup) 4.94 grams
Cannellini Beans (half cup) 4.94 grams
Almonds (whole, quarter cup) 4.48 grams
Pistachios (quarter cup) 3.25 grams
Psyllium Husk (1 tsp powder) 3 grams
Barley (half cup) 2.99 grams
Oatmeal (half cup) 1.99 grams
Celery (3 medium stalks) 1.92 grams
Flaxseed (1 Tbsp ground) 1.91 grams
Blueberries (raw, half cup) 1.78 grams
Lettuce (romaine, 1 cup) 0.99 grams
If you find it difficult to regularly achieve your fiber goal with foods, consider using a fiber supplement. There are better alternatives to Metamucil, Benefiber, and Citrucel which contain questionable ingredients like food dyes (yellow #6) and artificial sweeteners (aspartame and acesulfame potassium).
Here is a list of some of our favorite fiber supplements:
Fiber-Plex - Douglas Laboratories
FiberPlus - Ortho Molecular Products
Microbiome Fiber - Douglas Laboratories (low-FODMAP friendly)
Dr. Formulated Organic Fiber - Garden of Life
Start increasing your dietary fiber today! You can purchase these fiber supplement in our online medicinary on Fullscript.
Dreher ML. Whole fruits and fruit fiber emerging health effects. Nutrients. 2018;10(12). doi:10.3390/nu10121833
Slavin JU of M, Lloyd Beate PNGR. Health Benefits Of Fruits and Vegetables. Adv Nutr. 2012;3(4):506-516. doi:10.3945/an.112.002154.506
Walk A. Patient Education: High-fiber diet (Beyond the Basics). UpToDate. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/high-fiber-diet-beyond-the-basics. Published 2018.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015 – 2020 (8th Edition).; 2015. doi:10.1097/NT.0b013e31826c50af
U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central Search Results. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html. Accessed Jan 4, 2021.
