This year, fiber soared in popularity online but continued to be overlooked on American plates. Movements like fibermaxxing have made certain folks more motivated than ever to get the nutrient and capitalize on its benefits — such as preventing constipation, lowering cholesterol and contributing to satiety. But the fact remains that only about 5 percent of the population is eating enough of it.
The go-big-or-go-home approach may be at least partly to blame. Making a huge leap in fiber consumption is “such a harsh switch, and for most people, it’s not what they want to do, either,” said Elizabeth Klingbeil, registered dietitian, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. A rapid increase can cause GI discomfort, not to mention making eating fiber feel more like a chore than a step to care for your health, she added.
Instead, small, gradual changes — like sneaking fiber-rich ingredients into a dish you already know and love — are more likely to get you closer to the daily recommended intake of 25 to 38 grams while also creating habits that stick.
We asked experts how they recommend getting more of the nutrient without necessarily drawing attention to it, for those who know they should be upping their intake but find it difficult to do.
Top salads and other meals with chia seeds
Chia seeds are unbeaten in terms of fiber content by volume — just one tablespoon adds over 3 grams. That’s what makes them among the most convenient and affordable sources of the nutrient. But their versatility is equally noteworthy.
Chia seeds can swell in the presence of liquid and take on a gel-like consistency. That’s perfect for making something like overnight pudding. But they’re also great when left dry and used as a salad topper; contrary to the myth circulating on social media that you can’t eat them without first soaking them in a liquid because it will cause constipation, it’s perfectly safe provided you’re also adequately hydrating, Klingbeil said.
The good news is that salads are naturally hydrating since they’re filled with water-dense vegetables, so you can enjoy dry chia seeds in them with peace of mind. Just don’t let the seeds soak in the vinaigrette if you’d prefer to avoid that gel-like texture.
Dried chia seeds are also a natural fit in a handful of other dishes where their subtle crunch and fiber contribution can go a long way, like scattered on top of avocado toast, mixed into a yogurt bowl, or even sprinkled atop a pureed pumpkin or butternut squash soup.
Swap mayo for something greener
Avocado is most known for its healthy fat content, but the fruit (yes, fruit) is a fiber heavyweight, too, with half of an avocado packing over 4 grams. Its claim to fame is undeniably in dips like guacamole, but there are stealthier ways to take advantage of its benefits.
Take Klingbeil’s trick of using it as a substitute for mayonnaise in sandwiches and wraps. “The mayo is there really for this creaminess on your sandwich,” which an avocado also offers in spades, she explained. If you want to tone down the flavor, you can layer it with another more potent condiment, like mustard or hot sauce.
If you can’t imagine a sandwich without mayo, you don’t have to: Instead, simply blend half an avocado with a few tablespoons of the classic spread and apply at your discretion.
And here are seven can’t-miss avocado recipes if you can’t get enough of it.
Blend beans and veggies into soups and sauces
Parents know that blending veggies into a dish is a solid way to guarantee that toddlers eat enough, but the hack can also help adults get more fiber without changing the taste of their food, said Paige Cunningham, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University.
There’s almost no wrong way to puree vegetables into a dish, but just a handful of great examples include adding pureed cauliflower to mac and cheese, blending avocado into a smoothie or even mixing ground lentils into hamburger patties.
Cara Harbstreet, a registered dietician in Kansas City and founder of Street Smart Nutrition, said that blending beans and using them, rather than flour or cornstarch, to thicken a soup is one of her go-tos in this category.
Opt for a relatively flavorless variety, like cannellini or great northern beans — which contain about 12 grams per cup. Pulse an entire can until smooth, stir it into your stew while it’s boiling, and let it bubble for a few extra minutes until it has thickened, Harbstreet explained. “It just seamlessly integrates into the rest of what you’re already making.”
A can of beans would be right at home in one of these 10 creamy soups.
Give traditional flour a boost with oats
Swapping the flour in a bread or brownie recipe might seem like a simple shortcut to higher fiber consumption, but it doesn’t necessarily take into account how such a change can affect the way your final product tastes. But Klingbeil’s trick of cutting flours — which involves mixing traditional white flour with just a small amount of a fiber-dense alternative like oat, chickpea or almond flour — generally retains a baked good’s structural integrity while bulking up the fiber content.
For this purpose, she makes her own oat flour from scratch by blending old-fashioned oats into a fine powder, but she noted that a store-bought alternative would work just as well. The difference between this method and the others on this list is that it may require a bit of trial and error to get just right — start with a very small amount in your favorite recipes (maybe just a tablespoon to begin), see how it does or doesn’t change the flavor and texture, and adjust from there.
Substitute flaxseed gel for eggs in baked goods
Flaxseeds offer another fun way to incrementally, but not insignificantly, boost the fiber count in baked goods — just not how you might expect. Unlike oats, which make a nice flour substitute when ground, fiber-rich flaxseeds aren’t the right fit for this purpose because of their strong taste, Klingbeil said.
That said, there’s still a way to use them to sneak fiber into your baked goods: Turn them into a gel and use them as an egg substitute. Ground and soaked flaxseeds are a famously beloved vegan swap for eggs because they have the same binding and emulsifying characteristics that are so essential to many recipes. But the real boon here is their fiber content, something lacking from the original protein source.
In general, you’ll need to combine one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds — which contains over 3 grams of fiber — with 2½ tablespoons of water to make enough flaxseed gel to replace a single egg. You don’t have to change out all your eggs to feel the benefits, so feel free to mix and match the two ingredients as you see fit, Klingbeil said.
Mix up your grains
Swapping white rice for brown rice is one of the most common fiber-boosting tips, but the reality is the latter doesn’t contain much more of the nutrient than the former — there’s only about a 1 gram difference per serving, said Harbstreet. (Not to mention the noticeably different taste that some people might not be able to get past, she added.)
That’s why, instead of making a complete switch, Harbstreet recommended adding other grains to whatever you already eat for a texturally diverse medley — whether that be brown rice or another truly high-fiber option such as barley, quinoa or legumes such as lentils. For example, adding one-fourth cup of quinoa to one cup of white rice will give you 3 extra grams of fiber.
Small steps like this work the best because they don’t make eating fiber feel like a sacrifice or something you have to force yourself to do. “I always tell people you don’t have to get it in all your meals, you don’t have to get it in all your snacks, but if you can, find a few foods that are higher in fiber and incorporate those very regularly into your diet,” said Klingbeil. “That is actually going to be the helpful thing for you.”
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