How to increase your fibre intake gradually: 10 Dos and Don’ts for beginners

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If you are used to eating processed foods, learning how to increase your fibre intake can be quite overwhelming for a number of reasons:

• Trying to reach the 30g recommendations from day 1 can be a bit “shocking” for your gut. That’s perfectly normal. Your gut flora needs time to adjust. This is why you should increase your fibre gradually.

• Some foods high in insoluble fibre need more cooking than you think, or they can irritate your stomach and large intestine.
• If you are not used to including fruit and vegetables in your shopping list, you may end up with food waste. Here are a few beginner’s tips to increase fibre intake gradually without overcomplicating things!

Fibre consists of non-digestible carbohydrates which are not hydrolysed or absorbed in the small intestine, but they pass to large intestine. There is consistent evidence that including fibre in your diet has numerous health benefits for everyone, not only for weight loss.

Check these posts learn more about the potential health benefits of including soluble and insoluble fibre foods in your diet:

• Soluble Fibre
• Insoluble Fibre
• Fibre and weight management

Here are a few beginner’s tips to increase your fibre intake gradually without overcomplicating things. The goal is to minimise abdominal discomfort!

Dos

1. Start from soluble fibre foods

Soluble fibre is fermented by bacteria in your large intestine. Soluble fibre foods are considered “safer” even for stomach and gut problems, so it is a good idea to start with them. On the other hand, insoluble fibre passes intact and increases your stool bulk. Its more likely to increase gas production (especially raffinose).

Keep in mind that foods that produce gas in you may not cause gas in someone else. It depends on the gut flora you have at the moment!

• Oats, barley, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa are great soluble fibre foods for meals
• Citrus fruits and beans contain both soluble and insoluble fibre.

Here are a few fruit and vegetables high in soluble fibre for your next grocery list:

2. Start from adding a couple of tablespoons of fibre foods to your main meals

• Start from a small portion of soluble fibre foods in each meal. For example:
• You can add ½ cup of diced carrots to your lunch.
• Add a couple of strawberries to your cereal/ yogurt.
• Add 2 tbsp of soaked oats in your minced meat to make beef patties.

3. Start with cooked vegetables

If raw vegetables are too heavy for your stomach for now, feel free to start with vegetables you can cook, like carrots, parsnips, courgettes, swede, and butternut squash. Add them to your stews, roast or cook them in the steamer. Keep in mind that boiling vegetables for long or cooking them in the pressure cooker reduces the amount of fibre that reaches your gut.

4. Peel your fruit and vegetables

It is true that skin in fruit and vegetables contains plenty of nutrients and fibre, but if you just started eating them they can be hard to digest.

5. Buy frozen fruit and vegetables

With frozen vegetables you can take your time to gradually increase fibre in your diet without worrying about fresh produce going bad. You avoid food wasting food and if you have a large freezer, you can purchase different fruit and vegetables to have small portions throughout the week.

Don’ts

1. Don’t have legumes as your main dish too early

Legumes are high in both soluble and insoluble fibre (and high in raffinose!). They are a great plant source of protein and micronutrients, so their gradual introduction to your diet is totally worth it. Having legumes as your main when you are not used to insoluble fibre foods may lead to bloating though! It would be better to get used to all types of fibre for a couple of weeks before having a full portion of legumes.

Here are a few tips to make legumes more gut friendly:

• Soak them overnight.
• Use the pressure cooker for at least 40 minutes.
• Start with enjoying legumes as a side dish or adding a couple of tablespoons in your salad.
• You can use an immersion hand blender to make creamy soups for the first time you have legumes for a main meal.

2. Don’t replace all “white” carbohydrates with whole wheat products at once

Wholewheat products are also sources of insoluble fibre. If you have several portions of white bread/ pasta and processed cereal products per week, try replacing only two of these foods with wholewheat products during the first few days.

3. Don’t load your meals with vegetables high in insoluble fibre within the first few days.

Leafy greens, fresh herbs and cruciferous vegetables (kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts) are super healthy but high in insoluble fibre (including raffinose). Especially when you add them raw in salads, you consume all the fibre they contain. This is not a bad thing, if you are used to insoluble fibre foods. If you are a beginner though, you may experience abdominal discomfort if you eat plenty of them at once.

• You can start by choosing one of these foods and add one portion in your meal, along with your soluble fibre vegetables.
• Add broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts in your stew or cook them in the microwave steamer for at least 15 minutes. Eat only a couple of florets at first and see how you gut reacts.
• Nuts, seeds, tomatoes, leeks, onions, bell peppers and the peels from fruit are also high in insoluble fibre.

4. Don’t eat fruit high in insoluble fibre on an empty stomach

Especially if you have fruit first thing in the morning with coffee (coffee stimulates gastric acid secretion in your stomach), you may experience stomach crumps.

Here are a few fruit high in insoluble fibre:

5. Don’t eat plenty of fruit just before bedtime

Make sure you choose fruit you don’t find heavy on your stomach, especially if you have acid reflux. If you are not used to eating fruit in the evening, you can start with having one piece of fruit at least two hours before bed time. You can try bananas, strawberries, peeled apples and pears.

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