Why YSK: fiber is important for optimal human health. It helps us avoid diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, obesity, and other diseases. This is particularly important in developed countries such as mine (USA) that are suffering greatly from these diseases.
The recommended daily fiber intake is 25g for women and 38g for men in the USA, and 95% of us don’t meet this amount. This suggests an urgent need for us to increase our daily fiber intake, which can be achieved by swapping out ultra-processed foods and animal foods that are void of fiber with whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
Fiber should be the principle and perhaps only macro nutrient most people interested in improving their health and weight should track. If you are consuming enough fiber, you are necessarily eating a large volume of healthy, calorie-poor food, and it becomes a challenge to overeat at all. Once you’ve got your fiber intake high enough you can basically eat anything you want in addition to that.
Here’s my unsolicited recipe for overnight oats, you sweet, fiber-deficient lemmies:
1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, a glob of honey, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup of milk, then in the morning add 1/4 cup crushed walnuts and a ton of blueberries.
I’ve been doing: 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 1 cup flavored kefir 1 Tbsp chia 1 Tbsp ground flax As many blueberries as I can cram in with the rest in a 1 pint mason jar
It’s… Fine. I’ve been considering adding half Greek yogurt and half kefir, but I’m already desperate for more sugar in the recipe.
Maybe a splash of honey will be my next step
For anyone wonfering this seems to be ~8g of fiber (plus ~19440g for one ton of blueberries) based on this database, which seems to source basic data from the USDA.
I just struggle with finishing my ton of blueberries before they spoil :(
I hate when recipes mix units. How many cups are a ton?
About 6,130.
I know, right? Let me help you out with that.
A ton is 907 kg approximately, and the weight of a cup of blueberries, while varying, is around 148 g or 0.148 kg.
That means the above recipe calls for around 6128 cups of blueberries. And at 3.6 g per cup of blueberries that’s ~22000 g of fiber or 628 times your recommended daily intake for men, or 880 for women!
I kind of feel like it would be a smidge too blueberry-y.
do you need chia seeds for overnight oats?
No, but they are a nice addition if you like them with the added benefit of more fiber, oils, and minerals. They do help thicken everything up, so if you aren’t going to add them maybe use less milk unless you like it soupy.
Too much effort.
Here’s my muffin recipe, but you can really omit the applesauce and use pretty much any fruit you like for flavor. Do keep the bananas though or the texture will be really wrong. It’s good with a tbsp of chia seeds added, oats added, etc. I make my own yogurt and when I make cheese out of it I replace all the liquids (except oil) with the leftover whey and they come out gloriously soft and fluffy that way. Whole Wheat flour is really high calorie though so I’m open to suggestions for something to replace it with if anyone has any ideas.
Long story short I’ve messed with this recipe in so many ways and it has turned out great every time except the time I didn’t have bananas and uses avocado instead. It’s very forgiving so do it your way.
Muffin recipe
2 ripe mashed bananas
1 chopped apple
Flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax, 2.5 tbsp water, mix and let set while you prepare the other ingredients)
1 tbsp olive or avocado oil
1/4 to 1/2 C oat or soy milk or cow milk or whey
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C wheat bran
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbsp chia seeds
You can sub oat bran for wheat bran if you can find anyone selling it.
- Preheat oven to 350 (or don’t if using a convection oven)
- Lightly spray muffin tin with avocado oil
- Add banana, oil, milk, vanilla, applesauce, flax egg into mixing bowl and stir well.
- Add dry ingredients plus chopped apple to another bowl and mix well. Don’t add walnuts at this step.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add extra applesauce or milk if it’s a little dry.
- Add to muffin pan in 12 equal portions. Add walnuts to the top and press them in a little or they’ll fall off when the muffins are done.
- Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Cool for a few minutes before removing from pan.
I can’t seem to get it together to do the night before, so I make morning oats
I normally make a few portions at once since imo they have better texture anyway if you give them two+ days to absorb moisture. I try to make another portion every day, but since I have a few in the fridge it gives me breathing room if I’m feeling lazy any particular day.
I started using complex fiber supplements (as in whole dried ground foods with multiple sources and types of fiber) about a month ago, honestly life changing, cannot recommend enough.
Do not jump straight to this fiber intake if you are eating way under it. Gradually alter your diet to meet it. You will experience some discomfort if you don’t.
You know that old saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away? Apples are a great source of fiber.
I hate apples almost as much as corn on the cob.
The skins always get stuck in between my teeth and it makes me want to use a chainsaw to get it out.
I’m all for skinned apples and uncobbed (decobbed? cobbless?) corn though.
The skin contains most of the fiber in apples.
25 GB per day? I don’t even HAVE fiber, I’m stuck with fucking Comcast, which might I add is down right now. Typical.
Why so much higher for men? On an average day I eat probably somewhere between 25 and 45 g depending on what I’ve meal preppes D for the week and what I’ve decided on for snacks. I am a vegetarian who eats mostly whole foods. I can’t even fathom how the average American could come anywhere even close to that. It’s a LOT of beans/whole grains/vegetables/chia seeds/etc.
Man shits
Say no more (mostly because I don’t want any more details about those shits).
In general, American men are larger - dimensionally - so more fibre is required for a larger person.
Ideally, an individual would work with their doctor or whoever to figure out how much would be appropriate.
Because larger people need to eat more, as their body requires more energy, and so they need more fiber, I’m assuming.
I was Googling just now and found that women have a longer colon than man. I wonder if that makes any difference.
Psh, you had to Google to know that? You never found out for yourself? Kids these days.
Right? How else are you supposed to figure out who is on the other side of a glory hole? Mouths feel the same but that colon depth is noticeable, if you are paying attention.
Sexual dimorphism in humans
Ok but I was curious another specific physiological reasons lol like maybe men require that much more or they don’t see cardiovascular benefits or something like that.
Overall, men are significantly more massive than women, so our caloric intake is also proportionally higher. As a 6’3" 230lb man, if I were to try to stick to a 2000 calorie a day diet, I would lose weight. I need 2500 calories if I don’t work out, and more like 3400 if I do.
The wiener is 40% fiber
Wow, why such a discrepancy between men and women?
On average, men big, women smol.
The fiber ratio in this post is extremely close to the weight ratio between my wife and me.
Shouldn’t it just be weight dependent then, or is that too complicated to communicate?
As some people here already know since I talk about it endlessly, I have a weird medical condition where I have not eating solid foods in almost a year now. You have no idea how much fiber you need just to have decent bowel functions when you start at a base of zero.
I drink four cans of V8 and take 2 Metamucil capsules a day to get me up to about 30g. Still less than the recommended amount, but it’s all I can manage at the moment.
Before that, there were a couple of times when the constipation was so painful that I literally started yelling, “OH FUCK! OH FUCK! OH FUCK!”
🤣
I think I’ve started reaching this amount recently since I’ve changed my diet and started eating more oatmeal and fruits/vegetables. With that said, fiber can actually cause problems for some people, it can cause bloating/pain for some people even with adequate water intake to match the fiber.
If you suddenly add the recommended dosage to your diet, you will absolutely have problems like that at first.
It’s ideal to slowly increase your fiber intake so your body has time to adjust to it. That way those problems are minimized until it’s a regular part of your diet.To be fair, I added them to my diet without ramping up without issues, and there are people who can ramp them up and their body never adjusts to it/handles it properly. It all depends on the person, ultimately.
Your body needs time to adjust, you should work your way up to it.
True, but some people’s bodies don’t need time to adjust, and some people’s bodies are unable to adjust, it just depends on the person.
if your body can’t handle fibre, that’s not fibre being bad, that’s it telling you that you need to start getting in contact with medical professionals to make sure you stay healthy.
Not necessarily true, some people just don’t tolerate fiber well. It doesn’t mean that they absolutely definitely have something medically wrong, for some people it just causes bloating no matter what.
We highly recommend Benefiber for anyone. It is tasteless, doesn’t change the texture of your food or drink, and can be added to almost anything.
I think many people avoid adding fiber to their diets because it requires a change in diet or a supplement that is often gross.
Edit: Here’s a link. https://www.benefiber.com/fiber-supplement-products/benefiber-powder/
Better than psyllium husk?
I think so, yes. At least from a taste and texture standpoint, it is waaaay better. Psyllium husk (Metamucil) changes the texture of drinks and foods, causing them to congeal into a viscous gel.
Benefiber does not change the texture of the food or drink and is odourless and tasteless.
I will note however, after a quick google just now, that Metamucil was shown in a study to lower cholestrol while Benefiber did not.
For me though, it’s all about what changes I can make and stick to, and something that changes texture is very hard for me to get down.
I can get psyllium husks in tablet form. No need to mix it with anything.
In results, no.
In ease of consumption, yes.
This is what I do. I get the giant jugs at Costco and put them in the cabinet where we keep all our coffee stuff. Every morning I scoop it into my coffee before making it and it’s so easy. You’d never even know it was in the drink as it dissolves completely once stirred.
If you buy a supplement, definitely get the fine ground. I made the mistake of buying course ground and it’s like adding orange juice pulp to everything because it’s so chunky.
Same! First cup of coffee every day is the powder cup, goes in with the splenda. :)
I think I’m using a similar thing and I agree that it’s ideal.
i started being mindful of eating more fibre a year or so ago, and dear god it’s amazing to be able to just trust my bowels and barely ever have to think about type 2 toilet visits.
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Only 10 more to go!
(Based on an adult male needing 38g, the mean fiber intake being 16g, and a large carrot containing 2g)
But what about baby carrots
Does the USDA recommend single mode or multi mode?
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Vegetables measured in units of 120ml (because it’s half of some cups) is really stupid.
Realistically it looks like the majority of my fiber intake is about to become oats and popcorn…
You can throw some chia seeds in the oats to add to it. Doesn’t change the taste or anything.
Ah but you assume I will remember to BUY Chia seeds 😂
Yeah, actually acquiring them is pretty critical to the whole idea.
that article is written by vegan spiders, who sink their fangs into the tender flesh of a carrot and drain it of its essence, leaving only a withered stick behind.
Lol that’s hilarious. I laugh so much at the crazy mixing of units we use here in the US. Similarly, it’s quite common to see metric and customary units in the same sentence, as in “add 1 tablespoon to 100 mL of water”.
Thank you!
Thanks for the reminder. I keep forgetting to look out for chia & flax seeds when grocery shopping…
