Featuring Lauren K. Williams, M.S., RD
What is the Importance of Fibre in your Diet
Duration: 3 minutes, 3 seconds

Fibre is important for many reasons.

There's actually two different types of fibre. The first type is called insoluble, and this helps to keep your digestive system healthy, and regular bowel movements each day. There's also soluble fiber that actually helps to decrease your total cholesterol, and it also helps to help you keep a stable blood sugar.

So consuming both of these types of fiber are very important, and most products usually contain some of each types of fiber. So to increase your fiber intake, when you're at the grocery store and when you're preparing foods, look for whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat pastas, whole grain breads and whole grain cereals. Making sure you're reading the label and looking at the ingredients, not just assuming it's 100 percent whole wheat if it says. Looking for that whole grain word.

You can also get fiber from things like fruits and vegetables. So vegetables, great sources of fiber are your green leafy vegetables and broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, they all have a great amount of fiber in them.

Making sure you're keeping the peels on these vegetables as that's where a lot of the fiber can be found. So also to meet your daily needs of fiber look for beans and legumes. So great ideas are to put chickpeas on top of a spinach salad, vegetarian chili is another great option to get your fiber through the beans and legumes.

Nuts and seeds are another great source of fiber, so putting some slivered almonds on top of a salad, having a handful of walnuts with some fruit as a snack will help you meet your needs.

Fruits such as pears, bananas, apples, oranges, dried fruits are also excellent sources of fiber. We don't get as much fiber in a lot of our protein products, so things like our meats and our dairy products, so making sure we're getting a lot from the plant sources such as the whole grains and fruits and vegetables.

Most women need about 25 grams of fiber per day, and for men out there look to consume about 38 grams per day. To put this into perspective for you, aim to consume about seven to ten servings of your fruits and vegetables along with whole grains.

An apple or a pear may be somewhere between about three to five grams depending on the size. Whole grain breads can be anywhere from about three to ten, make sure you're reading the package and reading the label, looking for brands that have about more than four grams of fiber per serving.

Same thing with whole grain cereals, for a bowl of cereal you may get somewhere between five to ten grams, things like All-Bran tend to have a lot more fiber than some of your other types of cereals.

For more information on how to increase fiber in your diet, please contact your local registered dietitian or local registered nutritionist.

Presenter: Ms. Lauren K. Williams, Registered Dietitian, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Registered Dietitian