5 Tips on How To Spot High Fibre Foods
In my last blog, I explained why fibre is so important for your health, from supporting digestion and gut health to maintaining normal cholesterol levels. But knowing fibre matters is one thing; actually spotting high fibre foods in the supermarket is another. With so many labels, packaging claims, and confusing choices, it’s easy to feel unsure. In this quick guide, I’ll show you how to quickly identify high fibre foods, read labels with confidence, and make simple swaps that boost your daily fibre intake.
Look for Wholegrains
Wholegrains are one of the best sources of fibre.
Whole Wheat
Brown/Wild Rice
Oats
Barley
Buckwheat
Quinoa
Rye
Maize
Millet
Bulgur Wheat
Look for Unpeeled Produce
The skin of fruit and veg contains a lot of the fibre. So if you can keep the skin on when you eat it, you’ll get even more fibre from your food.
Eat apples and pears with the skin on.
Keep the skin on potatoes: both white and sweet potatoes taste nice with the skin on, when roasted, baked, boiled, or made into wedges.
Don’t peel carrots! If you just give them a good clean and then add them to a dish, like a stew or casserole, the skin on the carrots is hardly noticeable. When roasted carrots and parsnips are lovely with the skin on too!
Blend and Mix fruit and veggies into soups and stews - butternut squash skins can be left on and once blended in a soup you won’t notice them.
Add the zest of lemons, limes and oranges to meals - extra flavour and extra fibre!
Look for Pulses
Pulses are a category of edible seeds, that are full of fibre. They're a simple and affordable way to boost your fiber intake, you can buy them dry, or in tins and pouches. Tins a very easy to add to meals! Add lentils to mince dishes, bulk up curries with chickpeas and toss beans into soup, stews and salads.
Red Lentils
Brown Lentils
Puy Lentils
Split Peas
Chickpeas
Black Beans
Kidney Beans
Haricot beans - yes these are your baked beans.
Peas
Broad Beans
Look at Labels
You can see how much fibre is in foods by looking at the nutrition label. Manufacturers can list foods as a ‘source of fibre’ or ‘high in fibre’ depending on the fibre content per 100g, so keep your eyes peeled for these messages on packets!
At least 6g of fibre per 100 = High in Fibre
At least 3g of fibre per 100g = Source of Fibre
Look for Plants, not Packets
Once you start looking at labels, you might notice some of your favourite pre-packaged foods are low in fibre. So a good rule is that if its a plant, and not an ultra processed food from a packet, it contains fibre! Think…
Vegetables
Fruits
Nuts & seeds
Wholegrains
Pulses
Do You Eat Enough Fibre?
It can be tricky to know how much fibre you’re eating each day, to help you check your intake I have created a simple Daily Fibre Tracker for you to see at a glance whether you’re on track. This gives you a really informative list of how much fibre foods we regularly eat contain.
It’s simple, just tick off the foods you’ve eaten and add up the total!
If you’d like help making changes that work for your lifestyle, reach out, I’d love to support you!
