Start Roughing It...eat more FIBER!

We all know fiber is important but are you eating enough? If you are eating the Standard American Diet, (appropriately the acronym is SAD) then the answer is probably not. If you are eating a gluten-free diet which you have substituted gluten-free specialty foods for their glutenous counterparts you may also be consuming less fiber than recommended.

The problem with many (not all) gluten-free specialty foods is they have little to no fiber compared to glutenous foods. Take pretzels for example: 100 grams of “regular” hard pretzels (plane & unsalted) gives you 2.90g of fiber; 100g of “regular” hard pretzels (made from whole-wheat) gives you 7.70g fiber. By comparison, gluten-free pretzels give you ZERO grams of fiber (I could not find a GF pretzel that had any fiber on their nutritional panel). This does not mean you have to stop eating your favorite GF foods, just recognize you are getting zero fiber.

Instead of starting a quest to find GF specialty foods that have fiber, make sure you are eating lots of naturally gluten-free foods that are high in fiber. Some of the best sources of “roughage” are: Brussels sprouts (1 cup – 6.4 grams of fiber), artichokes (medium – 10 grams of fiber), lentils (approximately 6 grams per serving) & broccoli (1 cup – 2.3 grams of fiber). Fruits can be another great source: Raspberries (1 cup – 8 grams of fiber), blackberries (1 cup – 7.6 grams), pears ( large – 6.5 grams of fiber), orange (large – 4.4 grams of fiber) & guava (1 cup – 8.9 grams of fiber). Gluten-free grains can be another great source of fiber: quinoa (¼ cup – 5 grams fiber) and GF Oats (½ cup, 5 grams fiber) are two of my favorites!


To find out how much fiber you should be eating daily, visit: Harvard School of Public Medicine, The Nutrition Source, Daily Fiber Requirements.



Check back soon for more recipes incorporating these high fiber foods!