Ways to Increase Your Fiber Intake

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children should eat daily at least 1 gram of fiber per pound of body weight but no more than 35 grams of fiber, yet the average American only eats 11 grams per day.  Here are some suggestions to increase your fiber.  You can find out how much fiber is in your food by looking at the Nutrition Facts Label on your food.  Remember to look at the serving size also. 

n        Add kidney beans, garbanzos or other bean varieties into your salads.  Each half-cup serving is approximately 7-8 gram of fiber.

n        Sprinkle wheat germ or bran onto your favorite cereal (hot or cold).

n        Use whole-wheat flour when possible in your cooking and baking and choose whole grain bread.  Look on the label for breads with the highest amount of fiber per slice.

n        Eat at least five servings each day of fruits and vegetables.  Juices don’t have fiber.  Fresh fruit has slightly higher fiber than canned.  While all fruits have some fiber, there are some that are higher than others.  Here are a few which have 3-4 grams of fiber: apple, pear, 1-cup blueberries, and 1 cup of strawberries, orange, and tangerine.  Raspberries are high in fiber with 8 grams per one cup.  Vegetables can be good sources of fiber also.  Here are the ones that are have 3-4 grams of fiber: ½ cup squash, ½ cup peas, 1-cup carrots, ½ cup cauliflower, and 1 medium sweet potato.

n        Add chopped dried fruits to your cookies, muffins, pancakes or breads before baking.  Dried fruits have a higher amount of fiber than the fresh version.  For example 1 cup of grapes has about 1 gram of fiber, but 1 cup of raisins has almost 7 grams.  Packaged fruit leathers or snacks have no fiber.

n        Choose cereals with a minimum of five grams of fiber/serving. Some examples are:  Kellogg’sÔ Brand  -- Apple Cinnamon Squares, Blueberry Squares, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats; QuakerÔ -- Cinnamon Oat Squares, Crunchy Bran, Oat Bran.  There are also many bran cereals that are not usually well liked by children.  You can mix some of these higher fiber cereals into cereals that your children like. 

n        Cook with brown rice rather than white rice.  If it’s hard to make the switch, mix them together.  One cup of brown rice is 3 ½ grams of fiber.

n        Choose fiber-rich snacks such as popcorn (1 gram of fiber per cup), raw vegetables with reduced fat dip or whole grain crackers (7 TriscuitÔ crackers have 4grams of fiber) with reduced-fat cheese.

Clinical Nutrition

5/2002

Revised 6/2002