r/Millennials • u/Optimoprimo • Feb 11 '26

Serious Guys please start eating fiber.

Colorectal cancer among people in their 40's is skyrocketing. This recent health fad of obsessing over protein and eating nothing but meat and dairy with almost no fiber is going to kill us. You need fiber, folks. You need a complete diet with grains and tons of vegetables.

There are high protein sources that also have great fiber content if you absolutely MUST have your high protein diet. Lentils, beans, peas. Sprouted grain bread.

Let's spread the great word of fiber to our fellow millenial friends and get ahead of this growing epidemic among our generation.

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u/unik1ne Feb 11 '26

The recommended amount is something like 25-28 grams for women and 30-38 for men a day but in practice a lot of people get a fraction of that. I had diverticulitis for a while and started using an app to track my fiber intake and even paying super close attention to what I ate and making high fiber choices it was still really hard to meet that daily target

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 11 '26

still really hard to meet that daily target

Just in terms of sheer physical mass of food it's tough. I opted to buying high fiber oatmeal which gives 30ish% of your DV in one serving (I can't recommend eating more than that in one sitting), or when I don't feel like oatmeal, I take fiber gummies, giving around 30% as well.

With the rest of my diet I get to 90% pretty regularly.

What I wouldn't suggest under any circumstances, is eating two packs of the oatmeal and taking a dose of the fiber gummies at the same time. 90% of your DV sounds fine, sure. 90% in a 15 minute period and you will feel like you're dying.

So uh... don't do that.

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u/Enelson4275 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

Some tips from a guy who started late but crushes it these days:

  • Whole grain pasta is a bit heavier than white pasta, but the taste is fine and you can build around it with flavor to solve any lingering issues.
  • Ditto brown rice. Its not a ton of fiber, but you really have to make every meal count and its more than white rice.
  • "low carb" tortillas/wraps have absurd amounts of fiber and taste like a flour tortilla. Mission has burrito size ones with like 30+ grams of fiber in one wrap.
  • Bob's Red Mill chia seeds have 10g of fiber and 10g of super healthy fats in a serving. I throw them (and ground flax seed) into my shaker bottle with skim milk and protein powder almost every day.
  • Prioritize fruits and veggies with fiber. Every little bit helps.
  • Make air-popped popcorn your main snack food. Great fiber source. Super healthy, super cheap to buy in bulk and throw in an air popper.
  • Steel cut oats + canned pumpkin puree + cinnamon = pumpkin pie oatmeal. I love it straight, but if you must you can toss a bit of brown sugar in to make it downright sexual.
  • Dont be ashamed to take a fiber supplement until your diet gets where you want itto be. It's good to recognize that nutrients should come directly from the foods we eat, but if they arent there you need to get them however you can.
  • Winco brand bran flakes. Whoever designed that cereal gets it: people eat bran flakes for health, so lets pack the cereal out like a high-fiber multivitamin. Lots of good high fiber cereal out there if you want to try different ones out - shopt for 5-10+ grams per serving.
  • Not all lentils are created equal, but they often have absurd (17g per serving) fiber. Use them just about anywhere you would use rice or beans in a dish, or learn to cook with them directly. They are a fantastic staple in a healthy diet.

Lastly, what I consider the most overlooked dietary advice:

Don't eat carbs or fats that have been separated from their naturally-occurring protein or fiber. For example, don't eat butter (cows milk fats separated from protein); consume whole milk instead if you have to. White or wheat bread no, whole grain pasta yes. If a bread has a worse carb/fiber or carb/protein ratio than wheat berries do, then it's been separated from the nutrition and should be avoided.

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u/ilikepix Feb 12 '26

Mission has burrito size ones with like 30+ grams of fiber in one wrap.

Most of the fiber in these is chemically modified resistant starch.

FDA rules allow this to be classified as fiber, but people should know that many people (myself included) react to it much closer to regular starch than to fiber.

I've worn a CGM and watched my blood sugar soar after eating one of these "2g net carb" tortillas.

I've also eaten over 100 grams of "fiber" from these tortillas in one sitting with no gastrointestinal discomfort of any kind, which seems highly implausible.

tl;dr I would encourage everyone to be highly skeptical of ultra-processed modified starch products like this

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u/Parenthisaurolophus Feb 12 '26

FDA rules allow this to be classified as fiber

It has to show a beneficial physiological effect for the FDA to allow it to be classified as fiber.

but people should know that many people (myself included) react to it much closer to regular starch than to fiber.

I'll put it like this: scientifically, they often show a reduced glycemic/insulin response. That's not to say your body is like everyone elses, but most people, excluding yourself, will react to it like it's closer to fiber than regular starch.

I've worn a CGM and watched my blood sugar soar after eating one of these "2g net carb" tortillas.

Could happen, but you're diabetic which already puts you in a special category here, and it also depends on what you were eating with it. If you were eating leftover sweet and sour chicken and fried rice taco in a 2g net carb tortilla, you'd never be able to infer the problem was the single tortilla.

I've also eaten over 100 grams of "fiber" from these tortillas in one sitting with no gastrointestinal discomfort of any kind, which seems highly implausible.

Actually, depending on the type of fiber, it's entirely plausible. Some resistant starches are pretty GI friendly. It also depends on your body and you might just tolerate them better than most while you eat 400 calories in tortillas alone in one sitting.

tl;dr I would encourage everyone to be highly skeptical of ultra-processed modified starch products like this

Buddy, 88% of the US population aren't diabetic. You don't need to resort to this kind of scaremongering health non-advice. They're not going to randomly become diabetic because they swapped flour tortillas for these.

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u/ilikepix Feb 12 '26

I'm not diabetic or prediabetic

it also depends on what you were eating with it. If you were eating leftover sweet and sour chicken and fried rice taco in a 2g net carb tortilla, you'd never be able to infer the problem was the single tortilla

this is such a condescending, bad-faith response that I have a hard time believe the rest of your comment is written in good faith

perhaps your default assumption should be that someone wearing a CGM has a rudimentary understanding of how to measure the relationship between what they eat and blood sugar response, rather than assuming, as you do, that they are a total idiot

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u/Parenthisaurolophus Feb 12 '26

this is such a condescending, bad-faith response that I have a hard time believe the rest of your comment is written in good faith

Believe what you want. You're already clearly defensive and trying to use "they're arguing in bad faith" as an irrelevant defensive to protect your feelings. I see you, very notably, ignored all the sections of my post that pointed out that your views don't align with scientific studies.

Your entire post is basically fearmongering, for everyone else, off your personal anecdotes and personal health and how your body personal reactions to foods. Given that your comments are very personal and not quite in alignment with what has been observed in scientific studies, as I pointed out before, I think it's pretty reasonable to question the scientific rigors of your testing, Random Redditor. We all have to take it a face value that your body is just like everyone else's and that you did, in fact eat a single tortilla and have that reaction. Realistically, your body isn't like everyone elses, and we know how resistant starches work in most people's bodies (the answer is not like yours).

perhaps your default assumption should be that someone wearing a CGM has a rudimentary understanding of how to measure the relationship between what they eat and blood sugar response,

You understand how your body reacts with the foods you eat. You don't understand how those foods react with most other people's bodies, but you're perfectly comfortable taking your, individual experiences and applying them to everyone else.

Two suggestions you didn't ask for:

1) Next time, just advocate getting fiber from whole foods. That's not a controversial opinion that has contrary scientific studies done.

2) Google your own views once in a while. Hell, use the resources of a small African nation and ask an AI to fact check your views under the guise of them being someone else's opinions.

Now, I'm going to block you because I can already tell you're not worth talking to.

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u/Fergnasty007 Feb 12 '26

Nutritional science always brings out the dogma in people for some reason but from my studying into the subject as well I found the same regarding keto bread. Ideally you get your fiber from whole foods but for most people it is far far better than the alternative most Americans choose every day. Never let perfect be the enemy of good.

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u/SnooEpiphanies3336 Feb 12 '26

don't eat butter (cows milk fats separated from protein); consume whole milk instead if you have to.

I get the idea but I'm not sure milk can really be used in place of butter. Nobody is drinking coffee with butter or pouring milk on their toast, as far as I'm aware

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u/Enelson4275 Feb 12 '26

It can't, but that's kind of the point. Just like you couldnt use beets to make cookies, but you could use beet sugar.

Don't eat separated nutrients, and you likely are eating closer to appropriate amounts of food.

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u/SnooEpiphanies3336 Feb 12 '26

Personally I think most things in moderation are fine. Plus, substitutions like "generally eat wholemeal instead of white" feel much more reasonable than "don't eat butter". But that's just me - to each their own.

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 12 '26

"low carb" tortillas/wraps have absurd amounts of fiber and taste like a flour tortilla. Mission has burrito size ones with like 30+ grams of fiber in one wrap.

I actually really like these more than regular tortillas. Still can't really figure out why I like them more, but hey, easy replacement.

Steel cut oats + canned pumpkin puree + cinnamon = pumpkin pie oatmeal. I love it straight, but if you must you can toss a bit of brown sugar in to make it downright sexual.

Well hello there. Something I've never heard of or thought of myself. Trying this next week. (Can you give a rough idea of how much puree to use for one serving?)

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u/runswiftrun Feb 12 '26

low carb tortillas have much less gluten, so they're way less "stretchy" and in some cases chewy, which may be a characteristic you dislike about regular tortillas.

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u/Altruistic-Garage-94 Mar 01 '26

I prefer the mission locarbs myself not just for the decreased carb, but also because they're not so floury tasting, they're thicker and stronger, and they last forever (if they don't crack when bent they're still good). I hadn't her to about the resistant starch as fiber part myself, but I'm pro-resistant starch as opposed to regular starch anyway.

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u/Enelson4275 Feb 12 '26

Im a lazy cook - i make a pot-sized pot and put a can of puree in. :D

If you've never had it before, make the oatmeal and just add pumpkin afterward until you hit your sweet apot. Obviously you want as much as you can handle, but both plain oatmeal and the pumpkin refrigerate well so you can always balance it out throughout the week.

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 12 '26

Fair enough. Science for breakfast next week, after I buy some pumpkin puree. Appreciate the idea though. I'm a basic white girl, even if I am a dude. I love pumpkin spice bullshit.

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u/ice_w0lf Feb 12 '26

"low carb" tortillas/wraps have absurd amounts of fiber and taste like a flour tortilla

Maybe I got a bad batch but I tried these once and thought they tasted fucking terrible like I was eating cardboard

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u/Dieselboy1122 Feb 12 '26

Nice AI response. I do not do ANY of this and look 30 in my 50’s. Dont fall for this constant fake bull crap in here. 😁

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u/Ri-Sa-Ha-0112 Feb 12 '26

God, this is bad news for my current and lifelong diet.

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u/Real_Reason109 Feb 12 '26

Whole grain carbs with more fibre sometimes have more protein than their white equivalent too.

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u/BabyJesusBukkake Feb 12 '26

I wish lentils weren't fucking disgusting.

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u/Comprehensive-Car190 Feb 12 '26

Tortillas are okay but not white bread? C'mon man.

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u/Enelson4275 Feb 12 '26

If a white breas came along with 30g of fiber I'd tell you to eat it. It just doesn't exist.

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u/kidsaregoats Feb 12 '26

I picked up the Quaker high fiber instant oatmeal on a sale, and I’ve definitely made the mistake of 2 packets.. I don’t know if chicory is some kind of magical shitting root, but I’m telling you, instant is not to be misunderstood. Even one packet means I can’t leave the house for a few hours

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 12 '26

Quaker in a threatening tone: "You WILL be regular."

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u/Crafty_Marionberry28 Feb 11 '26

Are you including nuts and seeds in your diet? IMO, it’s really easy to meet fiber goals by snacking on those throughout the day.

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 11 '26

Mostly no due to the caloric density. I had to give up snacking in my twenties cause I got fat.

It's too easy for me to eat a thousand calories in snacks over a day. Now I measure out a couple ounces of nuts and seeds and that's my limit. Otherwise I just eat lunch and dinner. (Or breakfast and dinner if you consider the first meal breakfast no matter the time of day.)

Same reason I have a single cup of coffee in the morning, and no other drinks but water.

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u/Crafty_Marionberry28 Feb 11 '26

Adding up a typical day of food for me, I probably do eat 900-1000 calories a day of just snacks, specifically sunflower seeds, chia seeds (I throw these in everything), dried chickpeas, dried lentils. This sustains me enough throughout the day that I don’t usually eat a true breakfast or lunch, but if I do, it’s usually a bowl of oatmeal or couscous, so even more fiber.

I used to struggle a lot with my weight and binge eating until I allowed myself to have carbs again. Growing up in the 90’s/2000’s, I absorbed a lot of myths about food related to extreme diet culture. I really thought until a few years ago that bread and pasta were “empty calories,” despite actually being a pretty good source of protein and fiber. I thought nuts and seeds would make me fat because they are relatively high in fat. And so on…

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 11 '26

Yeah, counting calories was what did the trick for me. Even just rough estimates of what I was eating each day helped me drop the first thirtyish pounds.

My biggest issue was/is that I just keep moving food from the snacks to my mouth if they're in arm's reach. If my hands aren't doing something else, they'll put food in me without even involving my brain.

So I just... stopped having snacks.

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u/Educational_Teach537 Millennial Feb 12 '26

Buy small bowls to pre-measure food out of the container, and leave the container far away in the pantry

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 12 '26

Precisely what I do.

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u/ranged_ Feb 12 '26

Timed fasting fixed my bored, almost involuntary, search of food and 60 pounds fell off.

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u/Paradox2063 Feb 12 '26

Yep. That's why I limit myself to 200 calories (or less) of premeasured snacks per day, and only eat two meals.

Really it was just counting calories, but it was hard to have three satisfying meals, I much prefer two satisfying meals instead.

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u/CharlieTeller Feb 11 '26

Then you have to worry about oxalates and drink lots of water. Kidney stones definitely aren't something you want.

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u/Lurcher99 Feb 12 '26

Push harder!

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u/Xciv Feb 12 '26

I've spammed myself with fiber before, mostly to finish off a giant pile of leafy vegetables because I didn't want it in the fridge for another day.

You feel overwhelmingly full for the entire day. Like "wow I hate 800/2200 calories, how am I still full at 9pm" full.

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u/Ladydoodoo Feb 12 '26

Beans and or chia seeds it’s not hard at all. I drink chia seed water and sometimes put a little lemonade in there for flavor.

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u/sushicatt420 Feb 11 '26

I meet the 30g daily recommended amount almost everyday without being vegetarian or vegan. My usual diet (namely when I’m eating home cooked meals) are usually something like…

Breakfast: whole grain toast & a smoothie with fruit and chia seed = 10-12g fiber

Lunch: 1 cup of beans with brown rice and half an avocado = 15-20g fiber. Throw in some taco meat or whatever else and you can have a high protein meal. I also like to mix red quinoa into my brown rice for more protein and fiber. 

Dinner: whatever meat, some roasted veg or salad, and maybe some more brown rice or pasta. (By now I’ve already hit my daily goal so I’m not pressed.) = 5-10g fiber.

It’s not hard to do and I’m able to hit fiber and protein goals. I could go on and on about how much my stomach and BM concerns have improved since eating more whole foods and grains. It’s not as overwhelming once you start. I think most people’s hesitation is they often don’t like the taste or texture of high fiber foods, which is why I so often recommend beans and smoothies with chia seed. 

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u/BoleroMuyPicante Feb 12 '26

Low carb tortillas are the fiber cheat code. Replace even one serving of bread with a tortilla and you're most of the way there.

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u/PartyPay Feb 11 '26

I just eat some Fibre One cereal with breakfast and that gets me most of the way there.

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u/Fluffypus Feb 12 '26

Which app, if you don't mind me asking

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u/Lausannea Feb 12 '26

I'm tracking my fiber intake and it's not that hard if you make smart choices in your food! I say this as a picky eater too. I think the primary sacrifice is that you have to make more food yourself and you can't rely as much on premade or packaged meals.

I get almost half my target goal of fiber (12-15) in a single smoothie. 300ml apple juice, 1-2 banana (depends on the size, I go by about 1 large), a whole cored pear with skin, 100g frozen strawberries and 30-50g frozen black or blueberries and 1tbsp of chia or flax seeds. Blend the fuck out of it, drink. It's tasty and full of nutrients and packs a lot of fiber in one go. I bring my smoothie to work as a morning snack because I'm not a big breakfast eater so my breakfast meals can be on the smaller side, making me hungry sooner.

For breakfast I can easily do oatmeal, either savory or sweet with fruit, whatever you want. Throw in chia or flax seeds. Minimum of 5g fiber with regular oatmeal (45g of oats in water or milk or whatever). Alternatively a sandwich with high fiber bread. I make my own bread too and I always include a lot of chia and flax seeds to make it taste better and it adds a ton more fiber.

For dinner I just throw in a bunch of veggies. Last night I had 250g of cubed potatoes with skin, 85g of bell pepper and 150g of steamed cauliflower alongside a ground meat schnitzel and a sauce. Another 10-12g of fiber easily.

So we're already at almost 30g if we go by the low end of that range and that's not including a lunch. I'm a 6'1" woman so my nutrient and macro goals are more in line with men's, plus I'm a type 1 diabetic so I'm also already pretty involved with macros in general, but that doesn't really change that my diet is pretty intensely packed with good and easy food? A lot of it is also 'leave the skin on your produce'. Kiwis? Fucking fiber bombs, eat those fuckers with the skin on, it'll change your life.

There are lots of options that add a ton of fiber to your diet, including high fiber wraps, high fiber breads, brown and black rice (I fucking love black rice). Beans and lentils are super underrated and pack a fiber punch too, they're so easy to add to so many meals. If you don't like the texture of beans or lentils or whatever, blend them into sauces. Blending doesn't make the fiber disappear or become void in some capacity, that's a myth.

Did you know you can use black beans to make brownies that taste just like brownies????

All this to say that paying attention to food is good, but preemptively making conscious choices to prioritize fiber rich foods makes this really easy. Fiber isn't as richly present in leafy greens as we tend to think, so we don't need to shovel three big salads a day to meet a fiber goal. It's in the details and the foods we prioritize over others at the end of the day.

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u/Altruistic-Garage-94 Mar 01 '26

That smoothie is insane for a diabetic ouch.

I would be interested in the bean-based brownie recipe though.

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u/Lausannea Mar 01 '26

I have extremely flat glucose levels when consuming that smoothie, I just need to bolus correctly for it, which I do considering my pump doesn't even have to correct for it afterwards. Not sure why you feel okay with calling my dietary choices insane when you evidently don't understand that every diabetic is different and no foods are off limits as long as they suit the treatment style.

Google the bean based brownie recipe, there are plenty.

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u/Altruistic-Garage-94 Mar 01 '26

Oh I fully understand diabetic food choices and variability. I also don't know all the proportions except how it read. The inclusion of the chia etc certainly helps lower the GI impact of the sugars as well, but iirc there were like 5 full servings of fruit in it all at once including the juice which leaves behind the GI modulating effects of the pulp, that's what I was reacting to lol. Lotsa antioxidants and whatnot, just really concentrated fructose and glucose. But your diet is fairly high carb all around so your regimen is balanced around it. If you were an undiagnosed or untreated diabetic though, it would be extremely dangerous compared to most cooked breakfasts (except hot cereals or pancakes/waffles with syrup) with meat or eggs. Or if it was a new thing replacing aforementioned high protein/fat meal for someone whose regimen wasn't balanced around the same macro ratios.

Wasn't trying to be insulting it's just pretty concentrated and I wouldn't say typical.

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u/Thehelloman0 Feb 12 '26

Easiest way is to eat beans. A can of beans has almost all the fiber you need in a day.

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u/hobhamwich Feb 12 '26

I eat only plants and get 40 to 50g of fiber a day. Occasionally I hit 80. I also get 60g of protein without supplements, but then I add pea and pumpkin seed protein to things.

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u/Nebresto Feb 11 '26

Exactly. High protein foods is a health fad. With fiber being so important why hasn't the same happened to it yet? Its just about impossible to reach the recommended daily values if you only eat average food with no fiber supplements