Mission Fiber

25 grams of fiber per day is the recommendation for women, 35 grams a day for men.  Most of us are getting only about half of that amount in our diet.  Fiber has many interesting health benefits.  It increases metabolic rate, decreases appetite, and decreases the risk of illnesses like diabetes.  It's good for the digestive system and helps with weight loss.  

Yet, the American diet is naturally low in fiber.

For the past couple of years, I have been on a mission to increase dietary fiber in my own daily life.  In the big picture, this has amounted to eating more fruits and vegetables and adding beans to a lot of dishes. More recently, I have been digging into the details more to find out just how much it will take to achieve adequate daily fiber.

A month ago, I started eating breakfast again, since it is another opportunity to add fiber. I definitely have noticed that a high fiber breakfast carries me through to the end of the lunch hour when I'm finally making it to a meal.

 Here's my current breakfast:

1 tsp psyllium (5 grams)

3 T toasted flaxseeds (4 grams)

1/2 c blueberries (1.8 grams)

1/8 c lemon-ginger echninacea juice (0.1 grams)

3 T vanilla Greek yogurt (0 grams)

1/8 c dried raw walnuts (1 gram)

Total for this breakfast = 11.9 grams and delicious.  One must drink plenty of water when adding a fiber supplement like psyllium, and it tastes a heck of a lot better in yogurt than in any liquid I have tried.  Apparently, someone has figured out how to make cheesecake with it, but then there may be other health consequences of eating cheesecake...

I came across this wonderful recipe for lemon lentil soup that packs a powerful 22 gram fiber punch, that's if your serving size is 2 cups.  And that 2 cups would only be 287 calories.  Instead of using corn, I use about double the amount of carrots and add turmeric.

I also like adding red kidney or white northern beans or both to my tomato vegetable soup, along with other veggies.

Black bean soup is very simple to make, with a little bit of onions, lime and cilantro.

Another favorite is Moroccan sweet potato lentil stew, which I make in the Instant Pot.  The Instant Pot has become my favorite kitchen gadget, enabling very quick preparation of dishes that used to require overnight preparation. 

Wild rice also turns out to be higher in fiber, 10 grams per 1 cup raw, compared to 2.4 grams per cup of raw white rice and 6 grams per cup of raw brown rice.  Note that a cup of raw rice would cook to more than one serving.

As far as vegetables, artichokes seem to be especially high in fiber, according to this helpful article.

Finally, this recipe for granola is by far the best I have ever come across.  

Granola isn't health food, but it makes a pretty great dessert or additive to yogurt for a quick morning breakfast.  Homemade granola can be made quite a bit healthier than the processed, store bought version.  With this recipe, I use raw steel cut oats and often substitute walnuts or almonds for pecans.  I will also add flaxseeds or pumpkin seeds, depending  I like adding interesting spices like cardamom as well. 

Though daunting at first, I have found that it is possible to at least approach the daily recommended fiber intake.  It does take some intention, but with information widely available online, we can all probably mix and match a little to make it work.  Your gut microbiome will thank you.