6 easy ways to get more fiber

Eating a diet rich in fiber foods such as oat bran, beans, and most produce can help lower your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and aids digestion. But many of us hear the word "fiber" and immediately think bulky, coarse, and unpalatable. Our sister publication, ShopSmart, suggests these easy, appetizing ways to get your fit in your daily serving (25 to 30 grams) of fiber:

• Add kidney beans or chickpeas to soups, salads, and pastas. Legumes are an undervalued source of fiber, and they’re inexpensive.

• Put raw berries on cereal or pancakes or in salads. A cup of raspberries, for example, has 8 grams of fibers.

• Eat fruits with the skin on and don’t peel potatoes before you cook them.

• Add a bit of crushed bran cereal to muffins, casseroles, meatloaf, cakes, cookies, and other baked dishes.

• If you can’t stomach a high-fiber cereal on its own, mix it with your favorite low-fiber cereal.

• Swap your white products—bread, rice, and pasta—for whole-grain versions.

—Ginger Skinner

Find out how fiber can help cut your risk of colonic diverticular disease and take a look at the evidence for fiber supplements in treating irritable bowel syndrome (subscribers only).

Comments

[aghast]

Mother Mary! What is our obsession with fiber all about? You get puhlenty of fiber, quit worrying about it. If your diet is so poor that you're not getting enough fiber then you have more important things missing from your diet than fiber. Get a clue and quit jumping on the media-hype bandwagon of the day. Read a nutrition text book and quit reading nonsense blurbs in those silly magazines.

[Jemerin]

Nice post, thanks for sharing this wonderful and usefull information with us.

Green Tea

[Dacker]

I love raspberries, but there is no way I'm going to eat a cup of them for $3-4 just for the fiber!

One of the primary obstacles to eating high fiber cereals is the price. The cereal companies treat them as a premium product with a high ($4+/box) price to match. I really feel for the farmers who may get $.05 out of it.

[Sneeje]

Drink soy milk with your cereal instead of regular milk. Vanilla soy milk with shredded wheat is quite good, for example.