How on earth are you supposed to eat 30 grams of fibre every day?

[SleafordSods]

I’ve been listening to The Fibre Factor on R4.

I’m not on TikTok but according to this show, lots of TikTokers are now moving away from promoting eating high protein to now stressing how important it is to get 30g a day.

How do you do it though? Foods I thought might be high in fibre, like a banana, only have roughly 2 grams.

So if you’re getting 30 grams a day, how are you getting it?

Any advice for posters like me who have a form of IBD or severe IBS? I’m actually made quite poorly by eating certain types of fibre like legumes, pulses, beans. But if I get ‘bunged up’ the painful bloating is also horrendous.

I can manage ‘toddler food’ mashed root vegetables sometimes. But yesterday all I ate was a little bit of pickled beetroot (normally ‘safe’), and here I am again ill in bed pissing about on MN.

Eat real food, leave the skin on. Snack on beans and whole nuts.

The tricky part for me is to get sufficient fibre without eating too much sugar. All bran and baked beans really don’t work for me.

My basics now are cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and celeriac and anything leafy green then add sufficient protein and fat to make the greens palatable.

A spinach omelette rather than scrambled eggs, if I really want scrambled then add a portion of spinach. Like anything, it starts needing a bit of planning and quickly become second nature. L

I thought 30g was the male value? Men eat more in general so all their food targets are higher. Isn't the female target 25g?

Beans and vegetables

That’s tough. I just saw on google that soluble fibre helps, but I’m not sure what the effect of that is if it’s severe. Perhaps introduce them slowly over a long period?

I’ve never measure mine tbf but I add beans, pulses lentils to lots of my dishes. Eg chicken and lentil curry. Keep skin on veg where possible and also add ground flax seeds into porridge, chia seeds and other mixed seeds / nuts to porridge / yogurt.

Using an app like nutracheck helps. I hit 30g every day by having small bowl of All-Bran for breakfast, opting for wholemeal seeded bread / rolls / pittas / flatbreads etc and brown rice. Also an handful of raspberries a couple of times a day and a Fibre One bar with a cup of tea in place of a biscuit.

It’s very difficult imo. I have a berry smoothie most days - frozen berries plus a banana with oats, chia seeds and flax seeds but I don’t imagine it’s more than a few grams. You have to eat a lot of veg and pulses. I love baked beans and lentils in curry and if I have had an especially low fibre day I take psyllium husk capsules but at 500mg each even if I take 2 it’s only 1/30th of the recommendation.

I don't struggle for 30g either, I am sort of flexitarian, so a lot of vegetable based meals - I eat plenty of lentils, chickpeas, beans, if I'm having a meat and potatoes kind of meal then I have at least three good sized servings of different veg. Wholemeal bread, pasta, rice, noodles, plus nuts every day. Berries on my breakfast and maybe another piece of fruit a day.

I get a seasonal veg box every week and plan our meals around it, I think it is a mindset thing for me, start with the veg!

Raspberries have 6.2g per 100g.

@explanationplease not according to my nutrition counter or the below supermarkets

www.ocado.com/products/m-s-raspberries/518227011?srsltid=AfmBOooTWj9zmxKDnDCNUXiNkZjHqC5JghEgoEwLhvOBFWIRnB01PJKl

www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-british-raspberries--150g?utm_medium=cpc&cmpid=cpc&catalogId=10241&utm_content=shopping&productId=120938&utm_campaign=20333793068&utm_custom2=759-449-0952&storeId=10151&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhaHMBhD2ARIsAPAU_D5UdXcOJuxhubJ34fLoaL3UTwgqqhw4YQT9_uX91cW1elngmrlCKkkaAmCTEALw_wcB&utm_custom1=&langId=44&utm_source=Google&krypto=IiVB9qZbNO1BYLQFhK1AaRezEPTpOR1QRMJJuImyEw9Pmew%2F%2BkTUSYMh7uf82m5newniswwCP7mckZcsS1EgMrK8mP4NhOH6eik8ORQ5cAWaU6%2F2FUtX66fnDvxQvZhFNbuQz6dlzl09sgyQTR6RMKtPd0BOrbve4f90HZOAk4WGSG1zxp%2BjJWE9HHAHH8IZia%2BUibrNaWJAZevmUUvFVR6AZ0FQ2TjH%2BUq69L8pHTWfo3u6%2BSPjFPILobIIYbufWXu%2B6vN%2BLhkTiFybCyfMPdfykHGDLB05JHEu%2FSSVyMgmq%2FU9Fn6KbJetQ%2FNB0mSh3zVbL4q6n07YIFL93OqvyDJ%2BpQ7y9Q373c9R7dhfPw2MMMRM4EYeAuAft4rOGAdy&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fsainsburys-british-raspberries--150g

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/287377667?srsltid=AfmBOoqtw1belxFlcsTM5LQPwuNuA5VWP89cXpU1fj5yyBFLOZBF7mqJ

Nutracheck tells me raspberries are 3.7g of fibre per 100g! I think this is where the confusion comes in as there’s so many different values floating round depending on which app/website is used.

Plus I couldn’t afford for all my family to be eating 150g of berries every day! 😆

I think this is where the confusion comes in as there’s so many different values floating round depending on which app/website is used.

There was a thread not long ago & some people just couldn’t read labels or work out portion sizes correctly so just counted wrong.

Just looking on Nutracheck and they have different fibre levels on generic raspberries, raspberries from Aldi, Tesco… etc! Varies from 2.5g per 100g to 4.9g, depending on where they are bought, whether they are frozen etc. Very confusing! I’ve just looked in my fridge and freezer and the frozen ones from Lidl state a higher fibre per 100g than the fresh ones from Morrisons.

@JBJ

There will be lots of variation because the ripeness at picking, the variety, how they are processed & packed will make a difference but 6.2g of fibre in your average supermarket 100g is not the norm.

frozen will likely have more.

100g raspberries are 6
100g of Aldi beans are 4.7

so if you have Half a tin 200g that’s 9.4 plus rasp so 15 so half of your suggested 30

Legumes. They are brilliant.

Chana masala, hummus, dhal, puy lentil salads, refried beans, soups with beans in (loads of those!), Ottolenghi's confit chickpeas, adding black beans to melanzane parmigiana to make it a complete meal, vegetarian chilli, loads of vegetable casseroles, kidney bean and coriander dip...

Peas, beans, lentils and others are so cheap, filling, adaptable and all-round superstars of cooking.

I don't know how many grams it is, but I focus on breakfast only, and just eat what I normally would - not worried about fibre in other meals! I only vary breakfast if I'm in a hotel with brek included, then I go for broke haha.

So, breakfast is weetabix, no sugar, no milk, a heaped tablespoon each of milled flax, wheat bran and chia seeds.(milled is important as it is easy to mix and eat, you'd hardly know it was there). I mix with hot water (yep!), and top it with a mashed fruit mix of berries, kiwi and avocado.

That'll do me, no hassle no fuss. Regular as clockwork in the bowel dept. and no tummy issues at all. So far!

Porridge with a huge scoop of oat bran, milled flax seeds, pumpkin seeds for breakfast. Kiwi with the skin left on chopped into my porridge.

Seedy wholemeal stuff. Rye bread (including the proper dense block kind, or sprouted rye loaves too). Chia seeds.

*homemade pizza base with milled flax and 50% rye flour and any other flour

A tin of chickpeas or baked beans is half of that, easy to fit that in, Plus wholemeal bread, veg etc. I don’t find it hard at all.

I don’t

too much fibre just like too little sets off my ibs.

you can buy fibre tablets if you are really bothered but you need a drink a LOT of liquid.