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The Best High Fiber Diet

The typical American diet, full of sugary snacks and lacking in vegetables, often comes up short when it comes to fiber. Fiber is extremely important in regulating the body and improving digestion. There are many ways to add more fiber to the diet without sacrificing taste.

  1. Natural Foods

    • There are many tasty foods that can get you up to the 35 grams recommended in the dietary guidelines. Whole fruits such as apples (3.5 grams), oranges (4.4 grams), raspberries (8 grams per cup), pears (6.5 grams) and guavas (8.9 grams per cup) are extremely high in fiber and are fantastic sources of many vitamins and minerals. Vegetables and beans are possibly the best sources of fiber we can consume. Lima beans (11 grams per cup), carrots (4 grams per cup), sweet corn (5 grams per cup) and artichokes (10 grams per cup) are wonderful sources of fiber and like the fruits, they contain many vitamins and minerals. Some nuts that should be included in you diet are almonds (2.4 grams per ¼ cup), pistachios (2.9 grams per ounce) and hazelnuts (2.7 grams per ounce) for their fiber content and their supply of monounsaturated fats. Whole grains are a great source of fiber. Brown rice (5.5 grams per ½ cup), oatmeal (7.7 grams per ¾ of a cup) and whole wheat spinach noodles (6 grams per cup) are easy to add to your diet.

    Cereals and Supplements

    • There are many cereals that contain whole grains and large amounts of fiber. Fiber One is a popular brand that contains 9 to 14 grams of fiber per cup. Another brand is Optimum Power which mixes fiber-rich ingredients with other healthy foods like ginger. Fiber powders like Metamucil make it easy to add more fiber to your soups, sauces and beverages. Starbucks has a drink that uses a fiber and protein powder called a Vivano; each drink contains about 5 grams of fiber. It is also recommended that you drink eight glasses of water a day to help the fiber digestion process.

    A Recipe

    • Here is a recipe for a high-fiber black bean and pumpkin soup. You will need ¾ of an ancho pepper, 10 ounces of canned black beans, rinsed and drained (or 10 ounces of soaked black beans to avoid the sodium), two peels of garlic cloves, 1 1/3 cups of vegetable broth or fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth, 2/3 cup of water, 10 ounces of pumpkin, and 1/8 teaspoon of finely chopped cilantro.
      Heat the ancho pepper in a dry skillet over medium heat until it gets soft and then remove the chili and discard the seeds and veins. Toast the seeds for about 30 seconds then add them, the chili, the beans, garlic, broth and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Put the mixture on the sauce pan, stir in the pumpkin and heat until boiling. Reduce the heat and then simmer it covered for five minutes. Season it to taste and sprinkle with cilantro. Each serving of the soup has 103 calories and 6.5 grams of fiber.

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