High-Fiber Snacks

Easy, convenient foods that are high in dietary fiber make great snacks. Dietary fiber helps to promote feelings of fullness and also aims to ensure normal gastrointestinal function while encouraging regularity. Natural sources of dietary fiber can help to reduce the risk, or manage the symptoms of, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Getting Enough Dietary Fiber?

The Dietary Guidelines for American’s recommend a daily fiber intake from foods of 20-38 g/ day (around 25 g for women and 38 g for men). Currently, Americans are only consuming about half of the daily recommendation of fiber (at about 15 g per day). Therefore, it is essential to try to think of simple, practical ways to incorporate more fiber into our diets.

Below is a small list of high-fiber snacks that can be eaten alone or incorporated into any meal!

1. Sunflower Seeds: ¼ a cup of dry roasted sunflower seeds contains 4 grams of fiber. These can be eaten by themselves as a snack or tossed into a salad for added flavor!

2. Pears: A raw, medium sized pear with skin contains only 96 calories, but provide 5 grams of dietary fiber.

3. Edamame: This is a great, diverse high-fiber snack. Edamame can be boiled or roasted and then spiced with your favorite seasonings. One cup of edamame offers 8 grams of fiber!

4. Whole-wheat bagel: A small 4 oz. bagel can hold 10 g of fiber! Add a tablespoon of peanut butter for a high protein, high fiber snack or pre-workout meal.

5. NuGo Fiber d’lish Bars: One Fiber d’Lish bar contains 12 g of fiber! That is almost half the daily recommendation for fiber for Americans. Click here for more details about NuGo’s high-fiber snack bars!

References:

Supertracker Food-A-Pedia. USDA Choose MyPlate website.

USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010.