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15 Delicious Ideas to Eat More Fiber and Love It!

By Diane Hanson

You can’t ignore the importance of dietary fiber in your diet but if you’re like many other people who are still clueless about how to increase fiber intake, or looking for delicious ideas to eat more fiber, then this article is for you.

How to Eat More Fibre?

1. Start your day with high-fiber cereal (at least 5 grams fiber) such as All Bran, Uncle Sam and Special K Protein Plus. You can add sliced bananas, raisins or berries to up your fiber intake by 1 to 2 grams, or try sprinkling some ground flax seeds. If you like something crunchy, feel free to garnish with nuts. A medium banana gives you with 3 grams fiber while walnuts or pecans has almost 1 gram per tablespoon.

2. Eat a whole fruit instead of drinking fruit juice at breakfast. Juicing not only takes out the fiber, it is also said that some conventional juicers may even destroy many of the Vitamins, minerals and enzymes in the fruit due to friction heat. An orange, for example, contains about 3 grams fiber, and won’t spike your blood sugar level as much or as quickly as sweetened fruit juices.

3. Have a bowl of steel cut oats for breakfast. Oatmeal is a significant source of a specific type of soluble fiber known as beta-glucan, which provides your body with a wide variety of health-enhancing benefits. They include the ability to lower LDL bad cholesterol levels, to promote a healthy digestive system, and to protect against obesity as well as type 2 diabetes, just to name a few.

Also toss in a small handful of your favorite nuts or seeds to boost fiber content while adding scrumptious taste and texture. Interestingly enough, sunflower seeds contains more dietary fiber than all other seeds. For just ¼ cup sunflower seeds, you get nearly 4 grams fiber.

4. Make pancakes with buckwheat pancake mix and top with berries or raisins. Not only is buckwheat flour higher in fiber and protein as compared to white flour, it is also higher in many Vitamins as well as minerals like phosphorous, iron, magnesium and others. The other benefit of buckwheat flour is, it is also gluten free so people with wheat allergies can feel free to substitute wheat flour with it.

5. Add your favorite fruits or even tofu when making smoothies. If you use tofu, you’re also getting soy protein along with all nine essential amino acids for human nutrition. Besides, soy is also packed to the brim with isoflavones, which function like estrogen in your body. Research has shown isoflavones help maintain bone strength, thereby preventing the onset of osteoporosis in menopausal women.

6. When making sandwiches, use 100 percent whole wheat bread or multigrain bread. If you simply hate the “cardboard” taste, you can start off with one slice of white bread and one slice of whole wheat bread. Then switch completetly to whole wheat when you’re used to the taste. Same thing goes for brown rice and whole wheat pasta.

7. Add dark green lettuce, slices of cucumber and tomato rather than cheese to your sandwiches. You get the best of both worlds – more fiber and less calories. And, here’s one more reason to trade cheese for veggies. Cheese is one of the worst constipation-causing foods.

8. Try to serve beans and legumes rather than red meat as often as possible. Make chickpea and spinach stew, black bean and lentil salad, or sweet pea and watercress soup. Did you know that ½ cup of cooked chickpeas has 6.2 grams of fiber? That’s another great-tasting high-fiber food to keep your cholesterol levels in check.

9. Use brown rice in place of white rice. You can also cook whole grains like barley, wild rice, bulgur or quinoa and add them to your rice or pasta for side dishes.

10. Add grated carrots, shredded broccoli or zucchini to spagehetti sauces, coleslaws or salads. Alternatively, spice up boring greens with teriyaki tofu cubes, roasted tempheh bits, sliced mushrooms and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. Beans of any kind such as kidney beans, black beans, navy beans or pinto beans make great fiber-rich additions as well.

11. Bake your favorite cookies and muffins using whole-wheat flour instead of regular white flour. Also, don’t forget to add pureed pumpkins, bananas or apples for extra fiber and natural sweetness.

12. Leave the skin on when serving fruits and vegetables such as pears, apples, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and potatoes. The peels have much of the fiber. If you're worried about pesticides, rinse them in warm water before eating.

13. Popcorn can be a healthy snack for the whole family as long as you don’t over-do the butter and salt. Air-popped popcorn gives you 3 grams of fiber for every 3 cups.

14. Substitute rich desserts with a bowl of fresh fruits. High-fiber fruits include avocado, kiwifruit, papaya, mango guava, cantaloupe and dried unsulfured apricots.

If these fruits give you gas or you just can’t resist sweet treats, then top low fat ice cream, frozen yogurt, or plain yogurt with cornflakes, frozen berries (blueberries and strawberries), shredded unsweetened coconut, or chopped nuts (almonds, pecans, pistachios, cashews).

15. Ditch fat-drenched donuts and sugared cookies, eat whole grain granola bars, whole wheat crackers or dried fruits at work as a handy high fiber snack. 10 tiny whole wheat crackers offer 5 grams fiber. Better yet, munch an apple or nibble on baby carrots.

Many people experience bloating, cramping or gas when they increase their fiber quota so I would suggest you add fiber to your diet gradually over a period of several weeks. And, don’t forget to drink plenty of water otherwise you would end up constipated!

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