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 checked my daily intake recently as I thought I was having too much fibre due to wind issues but it did amount to approx 30g. I didn’t use AI, just googled how much fibre was in certain foods.

This week I’m eating less fibre as it’s Passover and my wind issues have all but disappeared (the only day I had them was when I had a large salad). I’m going to report this finding to my gastroenterologist next month (I have multiple gastrointestinal issues!).

I overhauled my diet earlier this year and have been eating a much healthier diet and have lost over a stone. But fibre has consistently been difficult for me to achieve the 30g a day mark. I eat plenty of fruit and veg and not too much in the way of UPF. I have totted up.... and my average intake - since I started trying to eat more fibre - is 19.3g per day. I am mostly hitting the mid twenties but I have had the odd awful day of like 10-11g which brings the average down. So yes I can well believe it.
I have been looking at fibre supplements recently due to my inability to get to the 30g mark consistently through diet alone!
I might go and make a bowl of porridge now though... thanks OP!

No idea of how many people get enough fibre, but you only need to read the food threads on here to see how rubbish many people’s diets are, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re lacking in lots of things.

I only eat 2 meals a day and I really struggle to get to my fibre goal unless I’m very purposeful about it.

And that the vast majority of Mns who think they are easily eating 40g a day can’t actually calculate it correctly.

I think it's really hard to eat enough fibre. @Chiaseedling I can relate to your post! My dietician told me to eat less fibre as for some people fibre can actually worsen gut issues such as ibs. Not everyone can tolerate lots of fibre, even when increased gradually over a period of time.

The easiest way of hitting 30g of fibre is eating beans/lentils everyday but who wants to do that?!

Ive never even contemplated how much fibre I eat, let alone speculate what other people might eat.
I used to have an ED and wasted an unreasonable amount of time doing mental calculations about calories (i would have loved all the apps or ai to work it out for me, it took up so much head space )
I try not to eat to many upfs (diet coke is my main downfall) but i dont want to start working things out, or looking at labels again.

I have read that only 4 or 5% get the recommended intake of vegetables and fruits, which convey a fair amount of fibre. People have swallowed the "carbs are bad" line and can't grasp the difference between McDonald's fries, a doughnut, and a bowl of porridge or a sweet potato or even a potato; between a salad with whole grains and processed food claiming to contain "wholegrains".

I think it actually could be hard due to poor finances. My weekly shop cost £40 this week's and I bought frozen macaroni cheeses, quiche, cheese and onion pasties and ice cream. I used to eat better but with the cost of living it's a lot harder

I’ve never calculated how much fibre I eat but i eat a lot of whole foods and barely any UPF, eat twice a day and try and be purposeful about what I’m consuming.
Yesterday I had a couscous and roasted chickpea salad with kale and broccoli, seeds, pink onions and some chicken at lunch.
For dinner I went out, had a flatbread with hummus, red cabbage, salad, chicken and I can’t remember what else was on it now.
If I wasn’t at 30g of fibre I’d be surprised if I wasn’t somewhere close.

I find it interesting how we’re told that we all need to eat the same amount of fibre - everyone must have 30g each day whether you’re 4ft 10 or 6ft 4

There are many who hardly eat fruit and vegetables in their diet. Also they avoid lentils and beans even though they have hardly tried them.

I have seen so many people over the years who eat this way so I am not surprised by this. It is very, very common to eat a low fibre diet. Meet more people and you will see it!

I’m one of these people.

My gut issues have got so much worse recently - don’t know if it’s perimenopause, age, something else that’s triggered it but I have to be so careful.

Foods I used to eat a lot of, like lentils and chickpeas, I can no longer digest and I’ll be really sick as well as the poo issues. Broccoli now also has a similar effect on me.

I made a hidden veg tomato pasta sauce to use up a load of veg in the fridge the other day - onion, carrot, celery, pepper, courgette, mushrooms, squash, fresh and tinned tomatoes - that seems to have set me off again despite all those things individually having been ‘safe‘ before.

I do eat berries, and some beans are still ok in moderation. Eat plenty of safe veg. I use wholemeal bread and pasta some of the time, but not every time. I definitely don’t get the 30g most days though.

@slumdogminulet- indeed. When I eat less fibre symptoms improve, but then I worry / am I getting enough fibre? Can’t win!
I have cut down on raw veggies as they seem to make things worse- it’s it the insoluble one that can be hard to digest? I think oats are soluble.
once I get back to my regular diet I’m going to monitor this carefully,

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!

Oddly enough pear would provide more fibre than your regular breakfast but are you calculating it properly. Was it a whole pear with skin or had it been pealed?

I am newly vegetarian and as of yesterday (!) vegan.

I assume I get enough fibre but can well imagine before my dietary changes when I ate too much meat and dairy then I possibly would not have.

So, yesterday's meals:

B- porridge, oatmilk, sultanas, mixed seeds and blueberries
L- baked beans on toast
S- tortilla chips and hummus
D-stir-fry courgettes, bamboo shoot,s mushrooms and peppers with tofu. White rice.

I just did a quick google calculation and put in the lowest end of fibre amounts as a base and only made it up to 36g. It's likely to be more I think as I was being very conservative.

It is interesting how everyone is different- like pps I have gut issues and IBS symptoms, but do better on mostly vegetables (not as much fruit tbh as I don't much like fruit). I am as sure as I can be though that I have an intolerance to dairy and am a bit dodgy where wheat is concerned so I suspect that is the root cause for me. My BFF has diagnosed IBS and she really struggles with alot of vegetables and fruit which makes it much worse for her.

This is true- courgette has very little fibre even with the skin for example. That did surprise me.

Another one here who has to have a low fibre diet for health reasons. I have found that chia seeds are a really gentle source of fibre that I can tolerate, so I stick them in everything to try and boost my intake. As a diabetic I have to be very careful with the fruit and veg I eat, and if I could tolerate fibre more it would really help that condition. My OH has quite a fibrous diet and he really suffers for it tbh.

I don't think I get enough fibre in my diet. I have coeliac disease and the most edible gluten free breads tend to be very low on fibre, practically non-existent so that's one source gone. I eat breakfast at work so usually have crispbreads (again, gf so not a lot of fibre) with cheesespread so not much there either, will have some vegetables with lunch and half my plate will be veg at dinner but that'll add up to maybe 10g max.

At weekends I'll usually have porridge for breakfast so that's about 4g, with a banana in it so that's another gram or two, and a tablespoon of roasted flaxseed and dried blueberries which adds a few more grams. Sometimes I do make that porridge in the morning before I go to work to reheat there, I should do that more often.

I use a diet tracker that does macros, but doesn’t include fruit or veg. This is because I set up those items long before the my introduced the macro function and I can’t be arsed to go back and add them in.

I average between 15-20g fibre a day from my tracked foods. I eat a massive amount of veg/salad and a bit of fruit each day too, so I’m probably there or thereabouts most days.

Yup. Off to eat an orange now. I'm good.

To answer the original question, I think we need to see the detail of the study that produced the 96 percent figure. These numbers get bandied around without it being clear what they are based on.

I’m borderline obsessive about fibre due to bowel issues I get 25g everyday and it’s a real effort that takes time to get into the cadence of.

I am certain 96% of people get nowhere near, most people haven’t got a clue how much fibre is in stuff. For example there isn’t much in fruit and veg, but people will insist they get enough.

youll also get people who say it’s easy then insist they eat chai seeds, sourdough, brown rice, chickpeas and raspberries daily. Obviously the vast majorly of people don’t eat like this.

Just done mine:
I had 2 apples which are 6g each and 6 slices of ryvita which is another 6g so upto 18g with just those items, another 4g for peanut butter on the ryvita. Then the rest granola, berries, lettuce, couscous, herbs, cucumber, celery and peppers. I am veggie which I think helps.