Government guidelines say our dietary fibre intake should increase to 30g a day, as part of a healthy balanced diet. As most adults are only eating an average of about 20g day, we need to find ways of increasing our intake.
Children do not need as much fibre in their diet as older teenagers and adults, but they still need more than they get currently:
- 2 to 5-year-olds: need about 15g of fibre a day
- 5 to 11-year-olds: need about 20g
- 11 to 16-year-olds: need about 25g
On average, children aged 11 to 18 are getting 16g a day. Encouraging them to eat plenty of fruit, vegetables and starchy foods (choosing wholegrain versions and potatoes with the skins on where possible) can help to ensure they are eating enough fibre.
Why do we need fibre in our diet?
There is evidence that eating plenty of fibre (commonly referred to as roughage) is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.
Choosing foods with fibre can also help with your digestion and prevent constipation.
Tips to increase your fibre intake
It's important to get fibre from a variety of sources, as eating too much of one type of food may not provide you with a healthy balanced diet.
To increase your fibre intake you could:
- Choose a higher-fibre breakfast cereal such as plain wholewheat biscuits (like Weetabix) or plain shredded whole grain (like Shredded Wheat), or porridge as oats are also a good source of fibre.
- Go for wholemeal or granary breads, or higher-fibre white bread, and choose wholegrains like wholewheat pasta, bulgur wheat or brown rice.
- Go for potatoes with their skins on, such as a baked potato or boiled new potatoes. Find out more about starchy foods and carbohydrates.
- Add pulses like beans, lentils or chickpeas to stews, curries and salads.
- Include plenty of vegetables with meals, either as a side dish or added to sauces, stews or curries. Find out more about how to get your 5 A Day.
- Have some fresh or dried fruit, or fruit canned in natural juice for dessert. Because dried fruit is sticky, it can increase the risk of tooth decay, so it's better if it is only eaten as part of a meal, rather than as a between-meal snack.
- For snacks, try fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, rye crackers, oatcakes, and unsalted nuts or seeds.
Fibre in your daily diet
Listed below is the fibre content of some example meals.
Fibre at breakfast
2 slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter followed by a medium-size orange should give you around 8.3g of fibre.
Fibre at lunch
A lunch of wholemeal spaghetti with lentil and tomato sauce should give you around 11g of fibre.
Fibre at dinner
A dinner of grilled chicken breast, skin-on baked potato, carrots and green beans should give you around 11.2g of fibre.
Fibre as a snack
Eating a small handful of nuts (such as almonds), some fruit, or crackers and hummus can help increase your daily fibre intake. Make sure you choose unsalted nuts without added sugars.
Fibre on food labels
The examples on this page are only illustrations, as the amount of fibre in any food can depend on how it is made or prepared and on how much of it you eat.
Most pre-packaged foods have a nutrition label on the side or back of the packaging, which can include a guide about how much dietary fibre the food contains.
High-fibre foods have 6g or more of fibre in every 100g.