YSK that the recommended daily fiber intake is 25g for women and 38g for men in the USA. 95% of the country does not meet this amount.

James_Fortis@lemmy.world to You Should Know@lemmy.world – 354 points –

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.

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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.

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?

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!

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.

  1. Preheat oven to 350 (or don't if using a convection oven)
  2. Lightly spray muffin tin with avocado oil
  3. Add banana, oil, milk, vanilla, applesauce, flax egg into mixing bowl and stir well.
  4. Add dry ingredients plus chopped apple to another bowl and mix well. Don't add walnuts at this step.
  5. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add extra applesauce or milk if it's a little dry.
  6. 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.
  7. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
  8. 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'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

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.

Those blueberries will make you shit something fierce.

This is purely anecdotal, but I started meal prepping with a pile of mixed vegetables and chicken, and my bowel movements have never been smoother. Like, the difference was legitimately addicting. Haha. An effortless shit everyday is such a massive game changer.

Thing is, I never have better shits than when I eat like absolute crap.

Hotdogs or a fry up, and it just flies out like a greased otter. Draw an ace every time.

When I go on a health kick and eat vegetables, it's legit like wiping a marker pen.

the "when i go on a health kick" would be the problem, you kinda can't "go on a health kick", you don't have a health bar that can be periodically topped up while otherwise eating garbage.

it's much better to always eat one carrot per meal than to have one meal per week that consists solely of carrots, not only does that give your body a baseline to work with, but it also means you get used to eating that carrot and eventually you start to quite enjoy it, and the thought of not eating a carrot with your meal feels a bit wrong, and adding another carrot to each meal isn't a very daunting prospect.

I used to subsist basically entirely on fast food, and at this point any meal without some proper vegetables feels somewhat unpalatable. I've also just straight up replaced candy with simply eating more food, and candy holds little appeal now. Why suck on a caramel when i can eat a tasty sandwich instead?

You've got to slowly ease yourself into a healthy lifestyle, and experiment around to find out what works for you. Maybe you love boiled vegetables, maybe you absolutely hate them but instead crispy fried ones herald the choirs of angels.

I've been working out more (and biking daily) and the post workout shit is always an amazing feeling.

What vegetables?

Literally just mixed peas, carrots and beans from a frozen package haha

I'll often toss a frozen package in the microwave to go with whatever I'm eating for dinner, then any leftovers go in the fridge to be remicrowaved the next night (they rarely make it more than 2 nights though, otherwise I'd be more careful about over-reheating)

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I once had a consultation with a surgeon about hemorrhoid surgery. Her recommendation was to use fiber supplements because it's almost impossible to get enough fiber from food alone.

(I ended up getting a bidet, and now my fiber-poor garbage diet doesn't cause that particular problem anymore )

Psyllium husk pills are awesome

I'm up to 70g of natural fiber a day! I'm plant-based though so it's easy for me when most of my foods are whole plant foods.

polished grains are a terrible curse upon humanity, just switching them out for whole grain is such an easy boost to your health. Not just more fibre, but more vitamins and stuff too along with proportionally less simple carbs!

I had to start supplementing with psyllium fiber (powder) several months ago after a massive hemorrhoid attack last fall. (Surgeon gave me the identical advice.)

If I don't get at least 40 g a day of total fiber (about 20+ of which are the powder), stools get large 'n' hard. It's working, and my ass is thanking me.

What I'm having trouble squaring is I don't think we evolved eating that much fiber every day. Pre-agriculture it would have been (depending on which part of the planet) lot's of animal protein and whatever roots & berries you could find, right?

Micheal Greger in "how not to die" talks about this. He says that hunter gatherers would eat mostly plants and sometimes some meat. And all plant food was not process so with lot of fiber

Bingo, we were not bagging big game and eating a 16oz steak daily. Meat was and should be a luxury.

How do you consume so much psyllium? I find it difficult to get down because it turns to goo very fast

mix it quickly with cold water and chug

Exactly. I use a blender (stirring never worked) with a squirt of water flavoring. The key part is the immediate chugging!

From an American diet maybe. But that's because our processed foods and meat fetish are really unhealthy.

You forgot the part where it allows you to have a normal bowel movement without straining. It’s the path to hemorrhoid reduction, possibly annihilation.

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.

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber#Contents_in_food

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.

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".

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.

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.

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/

I think I'm using a similar thing and I agree that it's ideal.

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.

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. :)

You would be so much better off changing your diet, though.

Eat your veggies and fruit people.

I believe, you're missing a comma there. Probably don't want people eating people. 🙃

You show me a sapient pineapple and I'll show you a crime scene.

Finally, a pro-health justification for eating the whole container of oatmeal cookies.

Thanks for the reminder. I keep forgetting to look out for chia & flax seeds when grocery shopping...

This also relates to jaw and gum health too. Most folks eat too soft a diet as well (fibrous foods often require more chewing).

i really wish someone would bring to market dentastix but for humans, make a slightly abrasive rubbery stick that i can just sit and gnaw on like cowboys with a straw of grass.

would not only improve jaw health, but help clean your teeth a bit at the same time!

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!"

Psyllium husk is a really affordable way to add fiber, just BE AWARE OF DOSAGE, when they say TEASPOON. THEY MEAN IT!

LFMF.

What this person means is that IF YOU OVERDO IT YOU WILL SHIT YOUR BRAINS OUT AND IT WILL BE AN EMERGENCY.

But that first purge feels so healthy though!

Ironically if you don't take enough water with it, you'll get constipated. It's used for treating both.

That's not really the concern. It's just bulk. As long as it is well hydrated when you consume it, it's very inert and you can't really have too much. If it's still partially dry, it'll jam you up until it sucks enough water out of you, so that's no good.

Wheat germ. It's in most stores in the cereal aisle. I take it with my orange juice or sprinkled on oatmeal.

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.

Reading this as someone blessed with whole grain rye-wheat mix bread, heck I can even buy the flour to make my own bread.

Change to whole grain, folks!

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.

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.

...i parsed that as 'once a month' and pondered your ensuing lifestyle...

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. Still, it doesn't hurt to check with a doctor when unsure.

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.

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?

i'd wager a lot of people have no earthly clue what their weight is, though i do think there's little point in even bothering with giving any sort of specific advice about fibre at all, just state the number that covers 90% of people. There isn't really such a thing as too much fibre, and i can all but guarantee that anyone who reads it won't get even close to the recommended amount anyways, they'll just eat a bit more vegetables (which is good).