The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025<\/a>, published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and United States Department of Health and Human Services, recommends adults consume between 22 and 34 grams of fiber per day, depending on age and sex.<\/p>\nA more general rule of thumb, Lee says, is that for every 1,000 calories you consume, you should aim to eat 14 grams of fiber. As you age, the amount of fiber required reduces to reflect a lower number of calories consumed each day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone between 19 and 30 years old, a female\u2019s average recommended daily fiber intake would be 28 grams, based on a 2,000-calorie diet,\u201d Lee says. \u201cBut for a male in that same age range, the recommended amount of fiber increases to 34 grams because they\u2019re eating a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
An important thing to note, Lee shares, is that there are two types of general dietary fiber: soluble, which dissolves in water and slows digestion, and insoluble, which helps with passing waste through the gut.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoluble fiber attracts water into your gut and forms a gel-like substance,\u201d Lee says. \u201cIt keeps you full, helps you feel satiated, and once it makes it into the colon, can provide or serve as a substrate for microbiota, meaning your microbiota can metabolize the food that you digest as well. So, this type of fiber serves as a beneficial food source for the microbes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other benefits of soluble fiber include helping to manage glucose levels and prevent glucose spikes by slowing digestion and reducing cholesterol levels so that it can be excreted rather than absorbed.<\/p>\n
Examples of soluble fiber-rich foods include whole foods and fresh produce, such as apples, avocados, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, as well as legumes, beans, and oatmeal. Sources of insoluble fiber include whole grains, nuts, and seeds.<\/p>\n
\u201cInsoluble fiber, on the other hand, cannot be dissolved and will not contribute to the calories you consume,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThe body can\u2019t take up energy from insoluble fiber, but it is critical to consume because it\u2019s the bulk of substrate that helps you have a bowel movement. Because insoluble fiber bulks up your stool, it helps to prevent constipation.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get the right balance of soluble vs. insoluble fiber each day, you should aim for a two-to-one ratio of insoluble to soluble fiber. For example, if you aim to eat 30 grams of dietary fiber each day, you should eat 20 grams of insoluble fiber and 10 grams of soluble fiber.<\/p>\n
How to get more fiber<\/p>\n
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together a resource on how fiber can help to manage diabetes, which includes tips for adding more fiber to your diet by eating things like fiber-friendly breakfasts.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re finding it hard to consume enough fiber in food form, Lee says supplements are a good option. \u201cThe majority of adults are not meeting their dietary fiber intake levels, so generally supplementation is a good strategy to meet recommended levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fiber supplements include products that can be swallowed in pill form or dissolved into water in drink form, but Lee warned that adjusting to increased levels of fiber in your body can take some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could run into the extremes of eating too much, where if you\u2019re not drinking enough water to hydrate and exceed the amount of soluble and insoluble fiber, you can get constipated,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other extreme is that some people respond differently to fiber and they run the risk of getting diarrhea. You really should check in with your body, since you know how your body is responding to what you\u2019re challenging it with daily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Tufts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. With the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[280,299,97,269],"class_list":{"0":"post-276479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-fiber","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}