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?

@Neurodiversitydoctor so why would you think your apples had 6g of fibre in them then?

Freeze the beans!!

spread out on a baking tray after rinsing and patting dry, put in the freezer for an hour, then put them in a freezer bag once they are frozen hard enough to keep separated in the bag

Same here, eating my dhal now and tomorrow I'll be cooking up a batch of white beans (whatever I have in the cupboard although I prefer butter beans), just out of the tin, with veg, spices, herbs, garlic, ginger, then that sits there and can go with whatever meat or fish I want. Tonight is dhal and salmon. Very nice.

I hear you. Gf options are expensive. The Loopy whisk on Instagram has a blog with free gf recipes, she uses psyllium husk in her bread recipes which will help with adding fibre. I have been trying them although it does take time to make and source some of the ingredients.

I said I googled it with gemini

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

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

Oh i eat the skins amd the cores.

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.

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!

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 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

Which is AI….

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

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. .

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

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.

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

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.

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'.

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…

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.

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

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

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 😆