How to add more fibre to your diet 

Jump to:-   General Advice  |  Warnings  |  Tips  | List of High Fibre Foods  |  Fibre Calculator

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Carbohydrates  | Minerals | Dietary Fibre  |  Nutritional Requirements

It is believed that more than half of the human population does not get enough fibre to meet the daily recommended requirements of 20-35 grams per day.  This article is aimed at helping you get more fibre in your diet and also outlines some important issues to consider when increasing your fibre intake.

General Advice

1. Add fibre to your diet slowly.  If you are currently getting 10 grams of fibre a day, don't jump to 35 grams of fibre the next day. This will reduce any stomach pain or discomfort in the beginning.
    

2. Starting with breakfast, choose a high fibre cereal (5 or more grams of fibre). If you don't like cereal, you could also consider eating fruit for fibre in the mornings.
    

3. There are many health benefits to eating fibre, so increasing your intake to the recommended amounts will definitely help you.

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Warnings

• If you are not currently taking in your daily recommended amount of fibre, be sure to start slowly to reduce stomach cramping. Also, be sure to drink plenty of water when adding more fibre to your diet.

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Tips

• When food shopping, look at the labels of high fibre foods. You will find that most of them are also low in fat.
   

• If you feel you are not getting enough fibre in your main meals, try eating  high fibre snacks including fruit such as pears, berries or bananas.
   

List of high fibre foods
 

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Fibre Calculator
 

As mentioned above, it's important not to overdo your fibre intake. However, listing the fibre content in specific foods on this page would be impossible. Use this handy gadget to calculate how much fibre is present in thousands of different foods. As a bonus it will also give you other nutritional information such as calories, fat and protein.

Sources and Citations

American Dietetic Association ADA

Need Fibre?

Based on an article by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual.  All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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