Two beef tacos in hard shells with lettuce and cheese carry about 2.2 grams of fiber. The beef and the cheddar contribute nothing; the shells and a little lettuce do all the work. Swap the beef for lentils, use soft corn tortillas and add salsa and cabbage, and the same two tacos carry 16.5 grams,…
A cup of plain yogurt, the food most people buy for their gut, carries 0 grams of fiber. So does a cup of kefir. That is not a flaw in either food. It is the whole difference between a probiotic and a prebiotic, and it is why a diet built on one and not the…
A slice of white sandwich bread carries 0.8 grams of fiber. A slice of supermarket whole-wheat bread carries 1.9. This loaf carries 4.7 grams a slice — about six times the white bread. The trick is not the flour. Whole-wheat flour alone would give about 2.4 grams a slice. The other half comes from what…
Lentils get described as a “superfood” so often that the phrase has stopped meaning anything. The actual numbers are more useful. One cup of cooked lentils carries 15.6 grams of fiber, 17.9 grams of protein and 90% of a day’s folate, for 230 calories. Here is everything in that cup, how lentils compare with the…
A typical side salad — two cups of romaine, some cucumber, a cup of cherry tomatoes — carries 4.0 grams of fiber. The lettuce, the part that makes it look healthy, is 2.0 of those grams. That is the whole problem with salad as a fiber food. Leaves are mostly water and air. What makes…
A cup of cooked white rice and a cup of cooked lentils carry almost the same carbohydrate: 44.5 grams against 39.9. The difference is what comes with it. The rice brings 0.6 grams of fiber. The lentils bring 15.6 — about twenty-six times as much. That gap is most of what fiber does for blood…
A chicken and broccoli stir fry looks like a plate of vegetables. Over white rice, it comes to about 5 grams of fiber. The broccoli, pepper and bok choy do their part. The cup of white rice has 0.6 grams and the chicken has none, and those two make up most of the plate. More…
Oatmeal has a big reputation as a fiber food. The bowl itself does less than you’d think. A cup of cooked oatmeal has 4.0 grams of fiber, according to USDA. Against a 30-gram day, that’s about an eighth. If you’ve been eating oats every morning and still coming up short, the bowl isn’t the problem….
You start eating a bowl of oatmeal every morning for your cholesterol, get retested three months later, and the number has barely moved. It is tempting to decide fiber doesn’t work. Check the dose first. The oat trials used at least 3 grams of beta-glucan a day, and the classic worked example is three servings…
Most chia-versus-flax articles end in a polite draw: both are “superfoods”, eat whichever you like. That is not an answer, and the numbers do not support a draw. Ounce for ounce, chia carries 9.8 grams of fiber and flaxseed 7.7. Chia also gets there on fewer calories. Flax wins something too, but it is not…
