Eat cereal every day for breakfast. Ideally, aim for a whole grain, unsweetened cereal with at least 4 grams of fibre a serving.
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Not just to keep the doctor away, but because apples are a good source of pectin, a soluble fibre that contributes to a feeling of fullness and digests slowly. A 1997 study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that 5 grams of pectin was enough to leave people feeling satisfied for up to four hours.
Make baby carrots and broccoli florets dipped into low-fat ranch dressing your afternoon snack three days a week. You’ll fill up the empty afternoon space in your tummy while getting about 5 grams of fibre in each cup of veggies.
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Switch to whole grain crackers. You’d never think a tiny cracker can make a difference, but one regular whole wheat cracker has 1⁄2 gram of fibre. Ten crackers give you 5 grams of fibre. So next time, spread your peanut butter on whole grain crackers instead of bread for a different taste treat.
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Every week, try one “exotic” grain. How about amaranth, bulgur, or wheatberries? Most are as simple to fix as rice, yet packed with fibre and flavour. Mix in some steamed carrots and broccoli, toss with olive oil and a bit of Parmesan or feta cheese, maybe throw in a can of tuna or a couple of ounces of cut-up chicken, and you’ve got dinner. Or serve as a side dish to chicken or fish. Make sure all grains you try are whole grains.
Use regular oatmeal instead of bread crumbs for meat loaf and meatballs, sprinkle it atop casseroles and ice cream, bake it into cookies and muffins, and add it to homemade breads and cakes.
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Use whole wheat bread to make your lunchtime sandwich every day. Even Subway and other such sandwich shops offer whole wheat options for lunchtime munching. If you want to gradually break into the whole wheat club, use whole wheat bread as the bottom slice of your sandwich and regular bread as the top layer. Eventually, make the whole switch to whole grains.
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Every week, switch from a white food to a brown food. So instead of instant white rice, you switch to instant brown rice. Instead of regular pasta, you switch to whole wheat pasta. Try whole wheat pitas instead of regular, whole wheat burritos instead of corn, whole wheat couscous instead of regular. Within two months, you should be eating only whole grains, and should have increased your daily fibre consumption by an easy 10 grams without radically changing your diet!
Spread your sandwich with 1⁄2 cup hummus. Bam! You just got 7.5 grams of fibre in a tasty package. Lay some spinach leaves and a tomato slice atop for another couple of grams.
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Add pureed cauliflower to mashed potatoes. You won’t taste a difference, but you will get some extra fibre.
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Start every dinner with a mixed green salad. Not only will it add fibre, but with a low-calorie vinaigrette dressing, it will partially fill you up with very few calories, and thus offers great benefits in weight loss.
Snack on dried fruit every day. Tasty, chewy, satisfying, easy to eat on the go-and loaded with fibre. Try dried apricots, dates, figs, peaches, pears, and bananas.
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Make your own smoothies by blending whole fruits. If everything in the fruit goes into your glass, you’ll get the fibre from the peel, often missing from fruit juice.