{"id":667904,"date":"2026-05-13T09:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/667904\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:21:08","slug":"should-you-be-fibermaxxing-heres-what-the-science-says-short-wave-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/667904\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you be \u2018fibermaxxing\u2019? Here\u2019s what the science says : Short Wave : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778664068_945_.jpeg\" data-template=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/7950x4472+1+0\/resize\/{width}\/quality\/{quality}\/format\/{format}\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8d%2F10%2F607bc76e4239b42efdc3ea90fcb1%2F51fea150-2578-4ae1-9ea4-175eff6ebf4c.jpg\" class=\"img\" alt=\"Overhead view of a large group of food with high content of dietary fiber arranged side by side. The composition includes blueberries, oranges, avocado, wholegrain bread, potatoes, oats, corn, beans, greens, broccoli, mixed nuts, and bananas, among others.\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                Over 90% of people in the US don&#8217;t get enough fiber in their diet. Does that include you?<\/p>\n<p>                    fcafotodigital\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>                hide caption\n            <\/p>\n<p>            toggle caption<\/p>\n<p>        fcafotodigital\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The average person eats 10-15 grams of fiber per day, according to the USDA. The problem? That&#8217;s WAY under the recommended daily amount.<\/p>\n<p>Fiber \u2013 a type of carb that our bodies are unable to digest \u2013 is prevalent in foods like fruits, veggies, whole grains, and beans. And it&#8217;s key for everything from feelings of fullness, to gut health, to good poop. That&#8217;s why a lot of people online are &#8220;fibermaxxing&#8221;: trying to meet or exceed the daily recommendation of fiber, in hopes it&#8217;ll improve their health.<\/p>\n<p>But how should YOU add fiber to your diet\u2026 and are the fibermaxxers overdoing it? Gastroenterologist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uclahealth.org\/providers\/berkeley-limketkai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Berkeley Limketkai<\/a> is here to help parse the science on how little fiber is too little, how much fiber is too much \u2013 and, like Goldilocks, how we can figure out the amount that&#8217;s just right.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in more food and dietary science? Email us your question at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/05\/13\/nx-s1-5815048\/mailto:shortwave@npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shortwave@npr.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at <a href=\"http:\/\/plus.npr.org\/shortwave\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">plus.npr.org\/shortwave<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to Short Wave on <a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3HOQKeK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spotify<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3WA9vqh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 90% of people in the US don&#8217;t get enough fiber in their diet. Does that include you?&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64,63,137,532],"class_list":["post-667904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}