Tips for adding Fiber?

[stanfordsarah]

Hi folks,
I just recently came from a health screening and found out my cholesterol is 224 and so I'm trying to find ways to reduce it. The doctor offered some advice about adding fiber into my diet, especially when I am baking, which I do a lot to avoid buying store bought stuff.
Any advice? What is good to add for Fiber?

 

[biscuiteer]

Last month I added orange flavored Metamucil to a spice cake mix and it turned out pretty well, light and fluffy. I think I added a tablespoon to the mix. Metamucil is a good way to add additional fiber to your recipes and they also have an unflavored one. You could try adding flaxseed or chia seeds to your recipes.

 

[Marie]

If you make Rice Krispie cakes, or use any other cereal (Cornflakes? etc), find cereals which say "High in Fibre" on the box, then use these to make little treats. It's a good start, I think..
Also, beans and nuts have a lot of natural fibre in them, so try adding these to your baking? (1/4 cup of almonds contains 4g of fibre) For example, these Vegan, Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies, are a healthy treat with a decent amount of fibre in, thanks to the black beans..

Try experimenting with different flours too; of all whole grains, wheat has one of the lowest amounts of fibre in it. Using corn, quinoa, barley, rye, oats etc instead would increase your fibre intake. Coconut flour contains the most fibre than any other grain, and using almond flour is also beneficial.

A lot of fruits are also high in fibre, so just eating these, or incorporating them into your baking would increase your daily intake.

Just remember, don't jump straight in and increase your fibre intake drastically; you will know about this.. and pretty quickly! Try to increase it gradually over time ( a few weeks), to allow the bacteria in your gut to adjust to your new intake. I think that women under 50 should be aiming for around 25g of fibre per day.

Hope this helps. Good luck with reducing your cholesterol.

 

[stanfordsarah]

If you make Rice Krispie cakes, or use any other cereal (Cornflakes? etc), find cereals which say "High in Fibre" on the box, then use these to make little treats. It's a good start, I think..
Also, beans and nuts have a lot of natural fibre in them, so try adding these to your baking? (1/4 cup of almonds contains 4g of fibre) For example, these Vegan, Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies, are a healthy treat with a decent amount of fibre in, thanks to the black beans..

Try experimenting with different flours too; of all whole grains, wheat has one of the lowest amounts of fibre in it. Using corn, quinoa, barley, rye, oats etc instead would increase your fibre intake. Coconut flour contains the most fibre than any other grain, and using almond flour is also beneficial.

A lot of fruits are also high in fibre, so just eating these, or incorporating them into your baking would increase your daily intake.

Just remember, don't jump straight in and increase your fibre intake drastically; you will know about this.. and pretty quickly! Try to increase it gradually over time ( a few weeks), to allow the bacteria in your gut to adjust to your new intake. I think that women under 50 should be aiming for around 25g of fibre per day.

Hope this helps. Good luck with reducing your cholesterol.

Thank you!
These are some great tips. I am going to try the coconut flour; I've never heard of that before. That's interesting about letting your body adjust to the new levels, I assumed I would be running to the bathroom every minute, but I guess not!
And I didn't know that about the wheat flour having low levels of fiber, so thanks for that tip, too!

 

[Marie]

Glad I could help.
Say if you worked out that your daily intake was currently around 5-10g per day, and you woke up the next morning and hiked that up to the recommended 25g, you'd surely spend several days running to and from the loo, as it would have a sort of laxative effect. However if you increased gradually over a period of time, this effect would be much much less, if at all. You may find that you become more 'regular' with time, but this is not only normal but also healthy, so there'd be nothing to worry about.

Wheat flour does contain some dietary fibre, but it's so simple to just substitute it for a different grain flour in any recipe, especially bread, and increase your intake as a result, that there's hardly any reason not to.

Let us know how you get on with the coconut flour..!