High Fiber Diet

Fiber Facts, Nuggets and Pearls

• For breakfast you can easily get the day started well by using a high fiber, whole grain cereal.  Check the labels.  Add fruit such as blueberries and bananas.  If you are an egg eater, use whole wheat or grain toast.  Adding wheat germ gives you a good fiber kick.

• Always use whole grain or wheat with rolls and sandwiches.  Does your fast food store not have them?  Perhaps you look elsewhere.  Eating an occasional black bean or veggie burger provides variety.

• Snacks should consist of fruit and/or nuts.  While nuts are loaded with fiber, they are an energy rich food, meaning they have a lot of calories in a small packet.

• Fruit juices should contain pulp.  Clear juices such as clear orange, pear or apple juice contain little fiber and have a lot of fructose.  Prune juice is usually high in fiber.

• Homemade soups – adding fresh or frozen vegetables to a chicken or vegetable stock is a good way to start homemade soup.

• Salads – adding cooked and then chilled vegetables provide great flavoring to almost any salad.  Remember, a cobb salad has lots of cooked corn in it.  Small slices of apples or oranges and nuts such as chopped walnuts or sliced almonds always adds taste, variety and fiber to almost any salad.

• Fruit – Try to eat fruit of some type with almost every meal.

• Rethink how you place the various foods on your dinner plate.  Reducing the portions of the meat or animal food portion to the side with equal or more portions of vegetables, legumes and fruits portion always allows for more fiber.  There was never anything magic about making the meat or animal food portion the main part of the dinner plate.  Eating from smaller plates can, over time, trick your mind and long term habit of using a dinner plate.  Again, there is nothing magic in an 11 or 12 inch dinner plate.