Fiber should be an essential part of our diet; however, most of us don't get enough, as the prevalence of fast food, ultra-processed foods, and the amount of animal protein that the Western diet usually contains, leaves fiber in a marginal place.
The European Food Safety Authority recommends a daily intake of 25 grams of fiber for adults. According to several studies, current fiber consumption in Spain, as in other developed countries, does not even reach half of this recommendation.
To increase the amount of fiber in your diet, you don't need to eat a specific food; instead, add or increase your consumption of all the foods you like that are rich in fiber.
At home, in addition to avoiding ultra-processed foods and industrial pastries, we try to eat foods with fiber at every meal.
At breakfast
Many mornings start with porridge, buckwheat, or chia pudding, although just as many begin with whole-wheat toast, which isn't as high in fiber. These days I add a bowl of fresh fruit to my breakfast plate—strawberries, grapes, and apples are usually on the menu.
If you like to have dry 'breakfast' cereals for breakfast, you can buy the ones with the least sugar and most fiber - you know they're not usually the healthiest - and mix them with oat flakes, pieces of fresh apple, and nuts to increase the total fiber.
At lunch
When we have salads, we make them much more substantial by using various types of lettuce and/or cabbage, adding chickpeas, steamed broccoli florets, and seeds. If we want a sandwich for lunch, it's always made with real whole-wheat bread and accompanied by kale chips, or raw carrot or celery sticks—although I don't like celery and never eat it—instead of potato chips.
At snack time
We can have fresh fruit or a handful of almonds, of course, but if we're craving something sweet and a little special, we can also have a couple of dates stuffed with walnuts and dark chocolate. You can certainly find recipes to make them super interesting, but opening a date, removing the pit, and filling it with half a walnut and an ounce of dark chocolate is very quick and easy.
At dinner
One day legumes, another day zucchini lasagna, another vegetable stew... there are a lot of possibilities, we just try to make sure that high-fiber foods are the star ingredient, or at least play an important role.
I love zucchini spaghetti and cauliflower "rice", especially when accompanied by tasty sauces. You can see if you can occasionally substitute or accompany whole wheat pasta with vegetables in the form of spaghetti.
A dinner that's always a hit at home is sweet potato tacos, which you can customize to your liking. Instead of flour or corn tortillas (which, unless you make them yourself, are usually ultra-processed), use a roasted sweet potato (or half). Cut it in half lengthwise, creating a pocket that you can fill with whatever you like. I love them with black beans, cilantro, tomato, onion, and chopped cilantro (pico de gallo), and a little queso fresco.
In pastry making
Whenever I make a special dessert, I use whole-grain flours—I cook gluten-free and I love mixing buckwheat, brown rice, and almond flours in my baking. I also usually add a few tablespoons of ground flaxseed, which makes gluten-free cakes fluffier and provides a small amount of fiber.
And why do we need to take so much fiber?
Fiber consumption is necessary for health because it helps reduce levels of "bad" cholesterol and sugar in the blood, and contributes to maintaining good intestinal transit—something necessary for health—and helps maintain a healthy weight.
Besides including fiber-rich foods in every meal, at home the adults regularly take a fiber supplement - note that it is a supplement and never a substitute.
In our family we have seen how a high-fiber diet has contributed to a healthy decrease in blood cholesterol levels, and as a side effect we have lost weight, slept better and our skin looks much clearer.
Do you have a way to add fiber to your diet?