AIBU to doubt only 4 per cent of adults get enough fibre?

This makes no sense to me. Calories are about energy your body burns to function. Fibre isn’t related to that at all. Fibre helps your bowel to flow waste out of the 25ft worth of intestine everyone has wrapped up in their body.

I had a bit of a dive in to this online (proper medical websites, not AI) and it seems you need 15g of fibre per 1000 calories you consume. I’m a small person so only need about 1500-1600 cals per day depending on activity levels, to maintain weight. So it would be 30g max for me, more like 25g. If I ate 2000 cals a day I’d need to go to the gym daily to burn the excess (I wear a Fitbit and used to use myfitnesspal so am pretty aware of my calorie needs. I eat a 99% wholefood/upf free diet.

Unfortunately, there is a massive rise in early bowel cancers in young people (most of whom are not exactly eating a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, and wholegrains; processed food is low in fibre).

I actually just checked the white bread I usually use for sandwiches which I assumed to have basically no fibre but its actually got almost the same amount as the whole grain carrot bread rolls. One sandwich from the white bread gives 4g of fibre which is more than double that I expected! Must be from the psyllium added to it. The brown bread version of the same bread only has one more gram of fibre.

If you dont want to be accurate thats great but then dont come on saying you've had a certain amount of grams of 'whatever'.

Quite 😆

I simply corrected you about your 12g of fibre for 2 apples, which you clearly didn’t appreciate 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yeah its expensive (I am quite low income though so average or higher maybe don't see it as expensive), I should just go fishing more often to get it

Is that true that fish is expensive where you are @Natsku ? You live in Finland, am I right or have I misremembered? That;s really interesting. I guess I always thought of the cuisine as being so fish-focused.

I’ve tried to boil down the advice to mostly home cook, eat more beans and lentils, brown carbs, cook a rainbow and add seeds. I like fermented stuff so happy to dollop a bit on the side…

Well just like the other thread, people making these huge claims of how much fibre (in this case, sometimes its protein or calories) dont stack up

When unpicked, the calculations are way off because people dont weigh their food, they take a guess, they use wrong information. Even using MFP takes a lot of effort to ensure that the amounts have been entered correctly but that you are using the right amounts of weight because sometimes things come up as 'serving size' or 'cup' or worse home made or per item.

everything needs to be weighed per 100g if you want to be accurate. If you dont want to be accurate thats great but then dont come on saying you've had a certain amount of grams of 'whatever'.

The roasted flaxseed/linseed stuff I've been adding to my porridge also gives enough omega 3 each day from one tablespoon so I'd recommend that as it'd help both with omega 3 and fibre.

I'm not veggie so can get my omega 3 from oily fish but fish is so expensive there's no way I'm eating it every week. But I have pickled herrings for lunch this week for a change.

My goal is 25 grams of fiber per day (along with a huge amount of protein and some carbs). I actually find it really difficult to reach. I make all meals from scratch and eat lots of fruit and veg and track absolutely everything (trying to lose fat) and I still sometimes need a supplement bar to get past 25g

Apples do not have labels, nor should they. As it happens my beans/ lentiks/ chick peas don't have labels either as we buy from the plastic free store.

I know I didn't say I hadn't goodness all this angst about an apples fibre content

I agree with a pp who said that all the various 'rules' can make you feel helpless and exhausted before you begin. 5 a day. Two serves oily fish. Fibre. Fermented produts for gut health. 30 plants a week. Now I say i roughly hit targets more or less (except for fish as vegetarian.... but DH who has been vegetarian for years takes a vegetarian Omega 3 supplement which I will start eventually). I care about what I eat and so pay attention but there can be too much 'health' 'noise' in the media that I think can be overwhelming.

But based on this thread I think I will start to add chia seeds and mixed seeds as a staple. I got from Aldi (I think) a pack of mixed seeds that contain linseeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and sunflower seeds. They are delicious and add a nice bit of crunch. Easy to add to what I normally eat with porridge, salads etc and not that expensive really at about £1.15 for 250g. .

So you agree with me then! The first piece of advice on that article is check the label 😆

Which is AI….

I find you have to be really deliberately eating fibre to hit the target
on a good day I was eating

porridge, raspberries, milled nuts and seeds

falafel with hummus on a whole meal wrap with salad, dark chocolate, lentil crisps, protein yoghurt (has fibre in)

pasta with broccoli, peas, spinach and a big salad on the side with more milled seeds or lentils with salad/veg

kiwi, apple and more raspberries

and even that was barely reaching it

Yes… note I also said nuts, seeds and whole grains. But if people aren’t even eating 5 fruit and veg a day then that means they’re unlikely to be eating many pulses or legumes (which count towards 5 a day!).

You just repeated what I said but added that some fruit and veg are big fibre contributors.

I feel I've eaten well today - eggs, greek yoghurt, oats, blueberries, cheese, nuts, lasagne, broccoli and sprouts. According to my fitness pal that is only 12g of fibre!

Her recipes are really good, psyllium is magic stuff when it comes to gf baking! Good for fibre but also adds that bounciness that's missing without gluten.

Oh i eat the skins amd the cores.

This site reckons 4.5
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/high-fiber-foods/art-20050948

I get extra points for not peeling most of my veg, don't I? Unless the peel is really inedible like onion one.

I said I googled it with gemini