(The average American gets only about 15 grams per day.) For men ages 51 and older, the daily recommended fiber intake is 30 grams for women, it's 21 grams.

It's not hard to meet your daily fiber requirement if you eat a plant-focused diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. A sample menu that meets your daily fiber goal His favorite fiber-rich meal? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich on dense, chewy, whole-grain bread.įor inspiration for adding more fiber to your diet, see the sample menu (above), which features a variety of fiber-rich foods and provides a total of almost 32 grams of fiber. Foods full of insoluble fiber, such as wheat bran, almonds, cauliflower, and berries, take longer to eat and digest, so they're more filling (and lower in calories) than a similar amount of low-fiber foods. Insoluble fiber has other advantages that may contribute to heart health, Dr. So far, there's no evidence that prebiotic fiber is clearly more helpful than other types, and most foods contain more than one type. However, because everyone's microbiome is unique, complex, and diverse, it's challenging to study. But dried beans, fruits, and vegetables also contain prebiotic fiber, with some of the highest amounts found in raw garlic, onions, leeks, and asparagus. Most prebiotic fiber is soluble fiber good sources include whole grains such as oats and barley. These fatty acids also appear to play a role in keeping blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels in check, as well as helping to prevent harmful blood clotting, says Dr. These compounds then circulate through the bloodstream and interact with specific receptors on cells that quell inflammation. Some fiber - known as fermentable or prebiotic fiber - gets broken down by bacteria in your colon to form short-chain fatty acids. The role of prebiotic fiberįound mostly in plant foods, fiber is often characterized as soluble (which blends with water to form a gel-like substance) or insoluble (which passes through the gut largely unchanged). These benefits appear to be facilitated by the trillions of microbes that live in our intestines (the gut microbiome), which have been a focus of increased scrutiny over the past decade. Even as little as a 5-gram increase in daily fiber intake was tied to significantly lower blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a byproduct of inflammation that tracks closely with heart attack risk.

Researchers discovered that eating plenty of fiber, particularly from cereal grains, was linked to a lower level of inflammation.

One of the latest, published March 31, 2022, in JAMA Network Open, looked at fiber intake among 4,125 older adults who were part of the Cardiovascular Health Study, which began in 1989 and followed participants until 2015. Other studies are now investigating how much and what type of fiber makes a difference. Since then, findings from short-term clinical trials and many large, long-term observational trials suggest that fiber-rich diets may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by as much as 30%. Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. 'Even early studies dating back to the '50s and '60s suggested there was something important about fiber for preventing heart disease,' says Dr. Researchers are now beginning to gain a better understanding of the different mechanisms behind this benefit. But this complex carbohydrate has long been linked to better heart health as well. Perhaps you're familiar with fiber's favorable effects on a person's digestive health.

Does fiber help digestion