Many of us will understand fibre to be an essential part of our diets helping to keep our digestive health in tip-top condition, however, it goes far beyond this; it’s a superfood with a whole range of benefits.
Let’s take a deep dive into the important nutrient, it’s benefits, and how a few simple ways to boost your fibre intake, including some tasty foods to try!
Why is fibre so important?
A recent study has shown that around 91% of people in the UK alone aren’t getting enough fibre in their diets. With the suggested intake being 30g, it’s thought that the actual daily average intake is much lower, coming in at just 19g per day.
Ensuring your diet is high in fibre can help keep us feeling fuller for longer and aid digestion, keeping everything running smoothly.
What is prebiotic fibre?
Prebiotic fibre is an essential and special type of dietary fibre that promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, also known as gut flora.
Unlike probiotics, which are live microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed, prebiotic fibres are not living organisms, but rather indigestible carbohydrates that serve as food for the bacteria that live in our intestines.
Probiotics on their own have a limited effect, as they’re easily destroyed. For probiotics to flourish, they need the right food to feed on - and that’s where prebiotics come into play! And one of the best sources of prebiotic? Chicory root fibre!
Easy tips to increase your fibre intake
Eating a range of fresh fruits and vegetables, alongside other whole foods such as brown rice, oats, beans, and pulses is the best place to start.
It’s recommended that we aim to eat around 30 different fruits and veggies every week to help encourage a healthier gut microbe. And of course, making sure that you eat prebiotic and probiotc fibre can help elevate the health benefits even more.
High fibre foods
Fibre is found in many more foods than you may think, a few ones at the top of the list include berries, oats, veggies and even dark chocolate!
As we look to ensure we hit that 30g target, here’s a handful of high fibre foods to get you started:
Avocado - 6.7g per 100g
Raspberries - 6.5g per 1 cup
Apples - 4.4g per one medium raw apple
Bananas - 3.1g per one medium banana
Oatmeal - 5g per 1 cup cooked
Fava beans - 9g per 170g cooked
Green peas - 9g per 1 cup cooked
Raspberries - 6.5g per 1 cup
Apples - 4.4g per one medium raw apple
Bananas - 3.1g per one medium banana
Oatmeal - 5g per 1 cup cooked
Fava beans - 9g per 170g cooked
Green peas - 9g per 1 cup cooked
An example of how to increase your fibre in your day-to-day diet:
Morning
Of course, we always start the day with a hearty bowl of porridge from our delicious, plant-based offering. A RANGE that expands across 8 different flavours, there's a one for every mood. With around 4.5g of fibre per bowl, top with a handful of fresh berries or some sliced banana for an extra boost of fibre at breakfast time.
Alongside this, we enjoy a bottle of io fibrewater, providing another 6g of fibre. Getting in a large chunk of your fibre intake early on in the day is one of the easiest way to make sure you hit your goals.
Lunch
If you’re anything like us and don’t like the faff of having to make lunch the night before work, we recommend batch cooking on the weekends ready for the week ahead.
One of our favorite high fibre lunches are warming soups. Packed with high fibre veggies, brown rice, barley, lentils and chickpeas, soups are the perfect lunch to help see us through the last of these cold winter days. Add in onion and garlic for the addition of a prebiotic veg too.
We recommended enjoying your soup with a few crisp breads and some fresh fruit for dessert. This filling lunch comes in at approximately 10g of fibre.
Afternoon Snack
When the afternoon hunger pangs kick in, we recommended snacking on some Honest Bean Fava Bean Snacks - the Sea Salt and Vinegar flavour is a strong contender for our favorites! Enjoyed with another bottle of io fibrewater, this easy afternoon snack will set you up with another 13g of fibre.
Dinner
One of our favoruite high fibre dinners in the winter is a slow cooked vegan chili - another great one for batch cooking to help make healthy eating easy no matter your lifestyle. This winter, we’ve found ourselves recreating THIS rendition from BBC Good Food.
The chili alone has 15 of fibre per serving, add in some brown rice and a leafy green salad full of probiotic veggies like tomatoes and cucumber.
And there we have it, breakdown of delicious meals to help you reach your fibre goal for the day!
