Chances are that someone has told you at one point in your life that you need to eat more fibre.
Maybe you tried to do so and you got constipated or you ended up farting a lot! Or maybe you tried decided to give up because it was too hard.
Well whatever the reason, here are a few fibre tips that can help make increasing fibre a little easier on the digestive system!
#1 - Soak your beans!
Beans aren’t called the magical fruit for nothing! Beans, which can be a great source of fibre, contain a carb called raffinose. Raffinose can be a bit harder to break down in our digestive systems, which means that our gut bacteria get a lovely meal! When our gut bacteria snack on things they produce gas! Now we do need to show them love, but it can be uncomfortable when you get a bout of wind at Sunday dinner over baked beans!
In order to help reduce the raffinose load a dose of baked beans or bean salad provides us, we need to soak the beans first! They can be soaked for a few hours or overnight. This will help hydrate them and reduce the gas producing raffinose snack without impacting the overall nutrition of the beans!
#2 - Fruits contain fibre too!
Whole fruits can have more sugar in them than their vegetable counterparts, but wapping in some fruit for dessert or part of snack time can add in some more fibre to your day!
Notably high fibre fruits include: pears, citrus (eating the whole inside not just the juice), berries, apples, avocado, kiwis, bananas
#3 - Baked goods and ground meat!
Shredded vegetables like zucchini, mushrooms and carrot can be added to baked goods and ground meat dishes without altering the flavour too much!
So making meatballs or cooking ground meat for tacos? try shredding in some zucchini or dicing mushrooms to add some extra fibre in!
Making muffins? try added zucchini or carrot to give not only extra flavour but also extra moisture!
There are tons of ways to make fibre fun! What do you like to do to add more fibre? I would love to know!
Dr Paige