Fiber

While reading another post and seeing many people talk about fiber. I started wondering how much fiber a person should be eating a day? I do try to eat lots of fruits and vegies, I only eat whole wheat bagels that are also high fiber (I'm not big on bread, I prefer my starch's in chips BAD!!!) but I rarely get more than 20 grams of fiber a day. Is there a trick to getting more in the diet?

Sorry if this has already been addressed somewhere else, there is just to much to read here. I love this site!

Sue

It's recommended that you get 25-30 grams of fiber a day.

Original Post by stc:

 Is there a trick to getting more in the diet? 

My fave fiber sources:  Broccoli, Kashi cereal (I prefer the hot GoLean stuff), Oatmeal, apples w/ skin, bananas, pears, carrots, fresh cabbage, black beans, lentils, almonds, Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bars, and Vitalicious muffins.

And there are many others:  http://nutrition.about.com/od/foodfun/a/high_ fiber_food.htm

To get more fiber in your diet, eat more fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains.

For breakfast, try oatmeal, fruit, veggie omelettes, whole wheat pancakes, waffles, or toast, etc.

In meals, switch regular carbohydrates to more fibrous ones. Regular pasta should be switched to whole wheat pasta, white bread to whole wheat or whole grain, regular tortillas to whole wheat, etc. Also, try substituting meat with beans or lentils.

Here's a list of the top-fiber foods. Scroll to the bottom to find a big chart: http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient &dbid=59

I agree with the above.  It helps a lot if you cut down on the meat-based meals you have in a week and replace at least half of them with meals based on vegetable proteins instead.  Beans, lentils, other pulses (legumes), nuts and seeds are particularly high in fibre whereas meat, of course, contains none. 

Thanks for all the info. I eat very little meat anymore. It's funny, my sister is a vegetarian and I have always given her a hard time about not eating meat but as I move to a healthier life style meat has become something that just isn't as important to me. I do have to find ways to put more protein into my diet though.

I eat lots broccoli and black beans, I need to find some more recipes of what to do with beans. I usually eat a spinach salad for lunch and try to add either almond or walnut pieces to it but maybe I need to add some beans also. Breakfast on most days is a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and a banana, it just feels like that should have more fiber.

Does chocolate have lot of fiber? That one did surprise me, I hope it does, any excuse to eat chocolate is good!

Thanks again for the good advice and the websites.

for a good salad with beans try a mexican salad. iceberg lettuce, black beans, corn and salsa. you can add more veggies, this is just the basics. you could also subsitute the iceberg lettuce for another kind if you prefer.

you could also add chick peas to salads...really tasty! 

I have this linwoods flaxseed, pumpkin seed and goji berry mix. You can put it in anything, porridge, yoghurts. It doesn't taste like much but you're getting LOADS more fibre.

I think linwoods is Irish though but you may find it on the internet :) 

Since I'm Irish I love trying anything Irish, I will check for linwoods.  It sounds really interesting!  Thanks!

What about fibersure?  That desolvable tastless powder.  Any thoughts?

I keep ground flaxseed with me and add a little here and there to foods that will mask the taste: soup, chili (black bean healthy chili), salad, mix with my mustard on a sandwich.  I can't tolerate the taste with yogurt, but a lot of people do that as well.

Yoplait Yo plus yogurt is great and has like 3 grams of fiber and I think Dannon Activia has 5. I love them both and if you put about a half cup in oatmeal with fruit, youll have a great breakfast full of fiber!!

I also like to put the yogurt on Kashi golean cereal, that gives you like 13 grams of fiber if you do a cup of cereal and a cup of yogurt!!

hope that helps =]

Hostess 100 Calorie Chocolate Cupcakes are my favourite way to get fiber at the moment.  5 grams per pack.  That's about the only part of them that's good for you, but I think they're cute.

Original Post by symsinia:

What about fibersure?  That desolvable tastless powder.  Any thoughts?

 get it from food, its better.

I haven't posted here in a long while.  The past few days I've been aiming for 30-35 grams of fiber a day. I can't believe the difference. My appetite is suppressed and I feel good.  I love Kashi Honey Flax cereal and whole wheat pasta (6 grams fiber per serving) . I forget the brand.

~~Christy

The La Tortilla Factory white whole wheat wraps have like 13 grams of fiber... and only 100 calories.  Also, apples have five a piece.

can you get too much fibre? Ex. today I had 46grams.

Original Post by amberrr:

can you get too much fibre? Ex. today I had 46grams.

I'd like to find this out aswell, I eat alot of Vegetables and Fruit so my Fiber can be quite high?  What happens if you eat too much fiber?

As a nurse, the only problem I can see from eating too much fiber is becoming constipated...for real.  Make sure you're getting plenty of fluids and being active. Keep it moving through you smoothly and not binding up. ewwww

Found this on CC:

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/nutrients/fi ber/dietary_fiber.html