Fiber can help with digestion, gut health, immunity, metabolism, hunger, and blood sugar. Further, the foods that feature it often contribute to benefits like heart health, weight management, and a lower risk for diabetes and other conditions.
In my opinion, one of the easiest ways to get more fiber into your day is to eat breakfast. Breakfast offers a great opportunity to include nutrition into your day, and it can be done in relatively little time.
Of course, not just any breakfast will work. Donuts, muffins, and Danishes don’t have fiber. Even though eggs are healthy, they don’t feature fiber, either.
There are fibrous options like avocado on whole grain toast, but my favorite option is oatmeal. Oatmeal is one of the best nutritional sources of fiber, and it features a good serving of both soluble and insoluble fiber. It can also be ready in under 2 minutes.
Oatmeal is also extremely versatile. It’s easy to add your favorite fruits – which increase their nutritional and fiber content – as well as nuts, nut butters, and more. Spices like cinnamon can also give it more flavor. Really, you can make it any taste you want.
Don’t want a hot breakfast on a hot day? No problem. Just add frozen fruit. Adding some fruit from the freezer will decrease the temperature so it won’t heat you up when you start to stay cool.
A healthy fiber-rich breakfast with oatmeal as the foundation provides an opportunity to increase fiber intake and potentially help include another serving of fruit into your day. If you add nuts or nut butter, even better. A serving of nuts per day is associated with improved heart health.
If you’re struggling to reach 24-28 grams of fiber per day, adding some oatmeal to your morning could help you get there.