Top 10 High-Fiber Foods to Help Your Digestive Health

What is High-fiber Food?

Any edible item that contains dietary fiber is known as fiber-rich food. Fiber is nothing but a complex carbohydrate that your body cannot digest. It passes through the intestines and cleans them along the way. It also acts as fodder for the healthy bacteria in our gut.

Benefits of Consuming Fiber

Including fiber in your diet offers several health benefits, such as:

1. Leads to improved digestion

2. Gives relief from constipation & helps in better bowel movement

3. Helps with weight loss by helping you feel full sooner.

4. Help to manage blood sugar levels thereby helping control diabetes

5. Protection from cancer

List of High-fiber Foods

Mentioned below are some of the best high-fiber foods you can choose from:

1. Oats

Oats is one of the best fiber-rich foods one can include in their diet. There are various delicious oats recipes available online that one can try.

Nutritional Content: A 100-serving offers 10.1 gm of dietary fiber.

Nutritional Content: a 100gm of serving offers 10.1 gm of dietary fiber.

2. Rajma

All lentils are high in fiber, specifically Rajma or kidney beans which are good sources of fiber.

Nutritional Content: A 100-serving offers 6.8 gm of dietary fiber.

3. Green peas

Green peas are another common vegetable that is high in fiber content.

Nutritional Content: a 100gm of serving offers 9gm of fiber

4. Carrots

Carrots are multidimensional and can either be eaten raw in a salad or cooked in gravies.

Nutritional Content: a 100gm of serving offers 3gm of fiber.

5. Apple

Apples are delicious fruits that are loaded with fiber.

Nutritional Content: A medium–sized unpeeled apple offers 4.4gm of fiber.

6. Almonds

Almonds make a great snack and pre-workout meal ,and these crunchy delights are loaded with fiber content.

Nutritional Content: a 100gm of serving offers approx 14gm of fiber

7. Flaxseeds

Flaxseed is the easiest way to increase fiber consumption.

Nutritional Content: a 100gm of serving offers 27gm of fiber.

8. Chickpeas

Chickpea (also known as chole) is a tasty and good source of dietary fiber.

Nutritional content: 1 cups of serving offers 10.6gm of fiber

9. Popcorn

Popcorn is particularly high in fiber.

Nutritional Content: a cup of air-popped serving offers 1.2gm of fiber

10. Dark chocolate

Decadent little cubes of dark chocolate is also a good source of fiber.

Nutritional content: 100gm of servings offers almost 11 gm of fiber

Include more of these food items in your daily meals, and you will get the recommended dose of fiber that will help you to stay healthy.

How Much Fibre Do You Need?

According to the National Academy of Medicine, the following is the recommended quantity of fibre per day for people of different age groups:

• People above 50 years of age: 21g for women and 30g for men

• People aged 50 or lesser: 25g for women and 38g for men

When To Not Eat A High-Fibre Diet?

While eating high-fibre foods for digestive health is highly recommended, sometimes your doctor may advise you against consuming a lot of fibre. Those instances include:

• Recovering after surgery of stomach or intestine

• To avoid aggravation of symptoms of certain ailments like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and diverticulitis, doctor will ask you to reduce fibre content in your meals.

• Narrowing of intestines caused due to some conditions like Crohn’s disease. The shrunk areas are known as strictures.

• If undergoing radiation therapy as it can cause side effects such as strictures or diarrhoea.

• People diagnosed with gastroparesis

• When getting ready for colonoscopy