Tips To Increase Fiber In Your Diet

Diabetes, high cholesterol or obesity in all these lifestyle problems, diet plays a major role. Doctors, nutritionists, dieticians world-wide recommend to increase amounts of fiber intake in diet to deal with these growing health problems.

Fiber Is Of Two Types -

Soluble Fiber - Soluble fiber helps you to feel fuller, lowers the blood cholesterol and stabilises your blood glucose levels. Some of the foods containing soluble fiber are oat, oat bran, linseeds, barley, fruit (like apples, oranges, blue berries) and vegetables (like cucumbers, carrots, celery), nuts, beans, pulses, soya and lentils.)

Insoluble Fiber - Insoluble fiber helps you to regulate the bowel function. It also delays the glucose absorption in the body. Some good sources of insoluble fiber are wholegrain bread, bran, wholegrain cereals, brown rice, nuts, seeds and the skin of some fruits and vegetables.

For good health, we should consume both types of fiber in our diet. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommends that the daily diet of an adult should contain at least 40g of dietary fiber (based on 2000 Kcal diet).

We have few suggestions for you to increase your fiber intake: 

Increase Use Of Whole Grain

• Try using whole wheat flour instead of refined flours like maida for cooking and baking. Whole wheat is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
• Choose whole wheat pastas and bread.
• Add at least one serving of whole grain item in all your meals.
• Replace white rice with brown rice as it retains the fiber-filled layer called the bran.

Pulses – Legumes And Beans

• Add pulses to at least one of your main meals. It provides ample amount of protein and fiber too.
• You can add kidney beans or other beans to your salad.
• Sprouts in your diet not only increase the protein and fiber content but are also a rich source of vitamin C, K and folate. They are great immune boosters.

Fruits And Vegetables

• Include minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables in your day’s plan.
• Prefer eating fresh & seasonal fruits and vegetables over canned ones.
• Eat the peel whenever possible. Peels of most of the fruits contains good amount of fiber and other nutrients.
• Eating whole fruit is always nutritionally better than its juice. Juices don’t have fiber.
• Include a small bowl of salad with your lunch and dinner.
• Regular consumption of certain vegetables like broccoli, corn, green peas, carrots, lady finger, spinach, methi etc, not only increases your fiber intake but also makes your meals more balanced and healthier.
• You can have a fruit bowl, nuts and seeds as a healthy option in your mid-evening or mid- morning snack. Dried fruits have a higher amount of fiber than the fresh fruits but they are also a high source of calories compare to fresh fruits. So, eat dry fruits in limited amount only.

ActiFiber Natural Sugar Control is a healthy, 100% Plant Origin source of fiber. Make it a part of your daily diet.