So you’ve heard me banging on about fibre for the past few days, so where exactly do we find it? Well, fibre is only found in plant foods, meaning you can’t get it from dairy, meat, poultry, fish or eggs. It also can not be found in most processed foods or white flour based products (white bread) as the fibre is usually stripped from the food during the processing. However, we can get it from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes/beans, nuts and seeds.
Below I have made a list of some of the plant foods that are particularly high in fibre:
Beans
Beans are an excellent source of fibre. They include chickpeas (Garbanzo beans), black beans, kidney beans, butter beans, and all the rest. They can easily be thrown into most meals including salads, chilli, and curries. They can have anywhere up to 9g fibre per 100g depending on the bean.
Lentils
Lentils are another great source of fibre. They are extremely versatile and they boast 8g of fibre per 100g. Lentils are great to throw into curries, pasta sauces and salads.
Broccoli
Broccoli is a vegetable that is particularly high in fibre. It is also very easy to work with. You can boil it, roast it, add it to stir fries or even casseroles. Broccoli has over 3g of fibre per 100g when cooked.
Berries
Berries are easy to have on their own as a snack, in smoothies, on top of porridge, or even in desserts as an easy way of getting in some extra fibre. There is over 6g of fibre in 100g of raspberries and 2g per 100g in strawberries.
Avocado
You might not think it but avocado has 7g fibre per 100g. Throw it on top of a salad, in a burrito bowl or on some toast and you’re a few grams closer to reaching your recommended daily allowance of fibre.
Nuts
There are so many different types of nuts that you can easily find a way to put them in almost anything. They can also be consumed in the form of nut butters. Raw walnuts have over 6g fibre per 100g grams, raw almonds have nearly 11g and peanut butter can have over 8g.
Sweet Potato
Sweet potato is great for roasting, making into wedges, throwing into curries and making soup. A medium baked sweet potato can have 6g fibre or over 3g per 100g. Another great way to get in those extra grams.
Whole Grains
Whole grains are a very diverse group of foods. They include whole grain flour products, oats, buckwheat, bran and much more. They are also high in fibre which means by simply swapping your daily white toast to a whole grain one, you could be working towards better gut health. Cooked wholegrain pasta has approximately 4g per 100g grams and 100g of oats has an amazing 10g.
Flaxseed
Flaxseed or linseed is a seed that is very high in fibre. Be aware that flaxseed cannot be consumed in its whole form and must be ground or bought milled. However, its very easy to add to your daily diet. It can be thrown into porridge, overnight oats, smoothies, salad dressings and much more. Flaxseed has about 30g fibre per 100g. Obviously, you wouldn’t be consuming this amount of it in one sitting. However, even a tablespoon of it in a smoothie can go along way to reaching your daily goal.
So how many of these do you already include in your diet? And how many of these do you think you could add a little bit more of?
The Picky Veggie 