High-fiber foods offer major pluses, according to the Mayo Clinic. These foods not only keep your digestive tract healthy, but they also help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol level. It may sound daunting to add fiber to your diet, but it turns out to be easy if you incorporate it at each meal and at snack time.
Fruit
Eating fruit is an painless way to consume a healthy dose of fiber. The Mayo Clinic says some of the highest-fiber fruits include raspberries with 8 g per cup; pears with the skin on with 5.5 g in one pear; and apples with the skin on with 4.4 g in one apple. Fruit juice is okay, but you get a lot more fiber from eating your fruit whole, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
You can get plenty of fiber by adding fruit to your cereal at breakfast, enjoying a berry smoothie at lunch and serving applesauce with dinner. Include fruit in snacks, too, suggests Kids Health, the website of the Nemours Center for Children's Health Media. Make fruit skewers, or whole-grain muffins with raisins, berries or pureed apples.
Grains
Whole grains are packed with fiber, too. A cup of whole-wheat spaghetti has 6.2 g, according to the Mayo Clinic. A cup of barley has 6 g, and a cup of oatmeal has 4 g. When you shop for whole-grain products, make sure the grain is at the top of the list of ingredients. Harvard says the most beneficial choices contain 3 g of fiber or more.
It's easy to get your whole grains at breakfast, with oat-bran muffins or whole-wheat pancakes. At lunch, you can make sandwiches on whole-grain breads such as rye, wheat or oat. If you or your children don't care for the taste of whole wheat, the Mayo Clinic recommends white whole-wheat bread. Unlike white bread, this isn't made from refined flour. Instead, it contains an albino wheat that still has its fiber content intact.
For your dinner grains, Harvard suggests branching out with international foods. Try tabouli, a Middle Eastern salad usually made with bulgur wheat; or experiment with quinoa, an ancient grain from South America.
Vegetables
Eat your veggies for another good source of fiber. The Mayo Clinic says artichokes are especially high in fiber--10.3 g in one artichoke--and so are peas with 8.8 g in a cup. Broccoli and turnip greens each have about 5 g per cup. You can get a double fiber boost by combining veggies and grains--think steamed broccoli over brown rice, or sauteed veggies in a whole-wheat tortilla.
Legumes and Nuts
The Mayo Clinic says legumes are way up on the list of high-fiber foods. A cup of cooked split peas packs more than 16 g of fiber; the same amount of cooked black beans or lentils has about 15 g. Many nuts are high in fiber, too. A quarter cup of sunflower seed kernels have nearly 4 g and about 23 almonds have 3.5 g.
Cuisines all over the world feature tasty legumes, such as Indian dal made of lentils plus exquisite spices. Nuts show up in many healthy snacks, including trail mix with sunflower seeds, almonds and dried fruit.
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