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

[Anonnewbie]

To think that the recommended 30g of fibre per day isn't that hard to achieve for most people and be confused by the stats I keep seeing recently that 96% of UK adults get less than this?

Is it 96% don't meet it EVERY day, because that seems reasonable. Or don't average over 30g, which I think is pretty bad. But I'm realising as I type I should Google that question

My real question is how much fibre did you eat today? I just put it into chat gpt by typing out my food for today and despite being horrified by today's diet (1 piece of fruit, a few veg, way too much pastry and cheese, and quite a lot of Easter egg...saved by half a tin of beans), it estimated 37g. I asked it for a breakdown of that and the calculations seemed correct within reason as I'm not going to start weighing etc.

I would have guessed I was above average due to eating plenty of veg and home cooked meals, but cant believe I would be in the top 4% of fibre eaters in the country.... What do you think?

I think I don’t care really and I certainly don’t care enough to ask stupid AI about it. If this kind of bum scratching makes you happy then great but truly I’d struggle to even consider the matter for ten seconds.

And yet you replied??
I agree ai is pretty bad, but the thing is, I didn't care enough to go through working it out with a calculator and googling each thing I ate so actually, for possibly the first time in my life, AI has achieved what I wanted.

I don't often post on Mumsnet as I am too thin skinned, and I fully expected to be told I was a humble bragging snooty judgy cow etc. But your comment has genuinely made me laugh in it's strangeness!

ChatGPT is a crap LLM designed by idiots.

...any helpful detail to add to that? Like why/what is better?
I have used it about 4-5 times with hilariously bad results for things at work and given up. But it appears to have done this task correctly, probably because it's just collating a whole load of very basic information.

I did not expect the AI to be the bit that was seized in here! I guess it's more interesting and emotive than fibre to be fair...

YABU. Have you not seen what a lot of people eat? White toast and jam for breakfast, sausage roll with crisps and chocolate bar for lunch, supermarket lasagne with some baked beans for dinner.

I think sufficient fibre is important because a good number of middle aged people experience digestive issues, and it seems that the gut is implicated in mental health problems too. So we should consider whether we meet our needs. But honestly I would say that as long as you’re not eating a beige diet with too much red meat and no vegetables meeting the RDA shouldn’t be too hard.

Fwiw, it surprises me too.

after seeing the news stories I did some reading. I always assumed foods that seemed to be tougher veggies ("roughage") had lots of fibre but things like v berries are actually higher in fibre that many other veggies such as cucumber and tomatoes. I would have thought salad would have more fibre than berries.

It showed me that I'm quite uneducated about it. But would have expected to be more knowledgeable than average about nutrition.

I'm not sure if I would be in the top 4% for fibre. I really like chickpeas, so that'll help me

I could easily believe this .

I hate ChatGPT and the use of ChatGPT and the bewildering reverence shown to ChatGPFuckingT on MN with every fibre of my being.

I reckon it's probably true. I'm sure I don't meet the requirements regularly, and I wouldn't say my diet is bad.

Today I had cereal and a banana for breakfast, a wholemeal / seeded bread ham sandwich for lunch with a tangerine, Easter chocolate (lots, got to get through it after all), and a vegetable stir fry to use up various bits in the fridge.

Not a bad diet (ignoring the copious creme eggs), I definitely got my 5-a-day, but I really doubt I got 30g of fibre.

How did you calculate your fibre OP, what did you have and how many grams of each thing?

I put a typical day's fodder into Gemini (AI came with my phone), and it estimated 36.5 grammes of fibre (yay! go me!)
It also said that most Brits only manage 18-20g per day.
My high-fibre diet is a deliberate choice, to help counter a health condition.

What probably doesn't help is the obsession with processed foods. I was told off on here because I have two weetabix, the poster wrongly declared them ultra processed. I put nuts and seeds with them. Porridge fell out of fashion (even though it's dirt cheap), so did stews. Beans, pulses etc started to be seen as middle class or hippy. Knowing the diets of a lot of people, I can easily see why they wouldn't get enough fiber.

I have no idea how much fibre I've had today. I had strawberries and Greek yoghurt for breakfast with a drizzle of date syrup, a slice of homemade 50/50 bread, a couple of chunks of Emmental cheese, a pointy pepper and a tub of guacamole for lunch followed by 3 Lindor chocs, a slice of homemade cake this afternoon and for dinner 2 more slices of the 50/50 bread, half a head of romaine lettuce, a big chunk of cucumber, half a tub of houmous and 2 clementines for afters.

It doesn't sound massively fibrous to be fair.

Ecosia AI reckons that's 35g. I have no idea how accurate that is!

I have no trouble believing that most British people have a woefully bad diet.

I was listening to mel robbins podcast when she had a Harvard doctor talking about fibre and the gut being the second brain etc. The doctor’s takeaway comment was that she takes psyllium husk every day to ensure she gets enough fibre - so it suggests she doesn’t always get enough even though she is super educated about its importance.

After googling the other health benefits I’ve invested in psyllium which I’ve started today, so I’m hoping I’ll be glowing with health pretty quickly. 😇

Most people don't get close, OP.

I've eaten 30 different fruit & veg a week, every week for three years, post cancer.
We only eat wholemeal pasta, homemade wholemeal bread, brown rice. I eat porridge with apple for breakfast.

Even so, I only just achieve 30g a week. You have to be veggie or close to it, and eat very few upfs to reach that target.

My son has a low fibre diet due to medical reasons which means I usually end up eating less fibre too so I think it would be accurate for me.

I tracked my fibre intake for a while (in grams, anything that went into my mouth) and I find it quite hard to hit 30g per day. My average is 15-20g. I can hit 30g if I eat quite a bit of raspberries or bran etc.

There was a huge thread about it a while back and the consensus was it’s not easy to achieve

If anyone wants to read them, it’s interesting
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5411184-to-think-its-really-difficult-to-eat-30g-of-fibre?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/food_and_recipes/5487628-how-on-earth-are-you-supposed-to-eat-30-grand-of-fibre-every-day?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Thanks, interesting. I don't disagree that you'd expect the majority to be missing the target, but 96% is almost everyone! But a few of the posters have mentioned food eaten in a day that wouldn't be unusual for me and said it's not enough fibre so maybe I just struck luck on the two times in my life I actually added it up!

I am veggie, and I don't like fake meat so I do eat quite a lot of beans, lentils and nuts relative to most. And have a toddler with a berry obsession.

I ate (sorry it's copied badly but I CBA tidying it or typing out again!)

1 normal pear Home made cheese twist (large - made of pastry and cheese) Pain au Chocolat - large Flat white coffee 3 filter.coffees with splash of milk Cauliflower and cashew nut soup with lots of spices - large bowl, home made White sourdough bread from Waitrose, two slices with butter based spread. Pur de brebis cheese 40g Mano masa corn tortilla chips lime and chipotle flavour - 1/4 bag Thorntons chocolate - about 1/8th of an Easter egg and 3 chocolates. Black beans, approx 0.6 of a can Tomatoes, 0.6 of can .3 of an onion A few slices of pepper Chipotle paste, 1 TSP Rocket, handful Coriander, small handful Dried spices, 2 TSP Olive oil, 1 Tbsp 1/4 lime, juice 2 poached eggs 3 cloves garlic 1 slice white sourdough Waitrose One home made tortilla wrap, made with 10g buckwheat flour, 23g white flour and a gram of rapeseed oil 2 tbsp full fat greek yoghurt

This is quite a lot of crisps, chocolate, pastry, cheese, and a lack of my normal porridge/Weetabix breakfast hence I was surprised it made the cut!

You said:
Please tell me how much fibre is in the food I've eaten today in total, with a breakdown by food source/item. 1 normal pear Home made cheese twist (large - made of pastry and cheese) Pain au Chocolat - large Flat white coffee 3 filter.coffees with splash of milk Cauliflower and cashew nut soup with lots of spices - large bowl, home made White sourdough bread from Waitrose, two slices with butter based spread. Pur de brebis cheese 40g Mano masa corn tortilla chips lime and chipotle flavour - 1/4 bag Thorntons chocolate - about 1/8th of an Easter egg and 3 chocolates. Black beans, approx 0.6 of a can Tomatoes, 0.6 of can .3 of an onion A few slices of pepper Chipotle paste, 1 TSP Rocket, handful Coriander, small handful Dried spices, 2 TSP Olive oil, 1 Tbsp 1/4 lime, juice 2 poached eggs 3 cloves garlic 1 slice white sourdough Waitrose One home made tortilla wrap, made with 10g buckwheat flour, 23g white flour and a gram of rapeseed oil 2 tbsp full fat greek yoghurt

ChatGPT said:
Here’s a solid estimate of your total fibre intake today, broken down by each item. I’ve used typical UK nutritional averages and reasonable portion assumptions for homemade foods.
🌾 Fibre breakdown by food
🍐 Fruit & veg
Pear (1 medium) → ~5.5 g
Cauliflower (soup, large bowl ~250g) → ~5 g
Cashew nuts (~30g in soup) → ~1 g
Black beans (0.6 can, ~150g drained) → ~9 g
Tomatoes (0.6 can) → ~2 g
Onion (0.3 medium) → ~0.8 g
Pepper (few slices) → ~0.5 g
Rocket (handful) → ~0.3 g
Coriander (small handful) → ~0.2 g
Garlic (3 cloves) → ~0.2 g
Lime juice → negligible
Subtotal: ~24.5 g
🌮 Grains, bread & baked goods
Cheese twist (large, pastry) → ~1.5 g
Pain au chocolat (large) → ~2 g
White sourdough (3 slices total) → ~3 g
Homemade tortilla (10g buckwheat + 23g white flour) → ~1.5 g
Tortilla chips (¼ bag) → ~2 g
Subtotal: ~10 g

The rest was minimal but a few grams here and there.

Yeah that is fair to some extent. I actually think my use here is reasonable - it's just collecting some facts much quicker than I can. It does worry me when people assume it's right about anything - it has such a tendency to tell you you are great and enthusiastically encourage stupid ideas! Not mention just pure incorrectness when it doesn't know. I've never got on with it and have been trying to work out how to turn off the AI summary on Google because you do read it and assume it's true but it gets really basic things wrong! Not to mention it being a waste of resources to use it on every search.