While on a gluten free diet, you diet may be lacking in fiber. I turned to gluten free expert and registered dietitian, Shelley Case, author of Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Guide, to obtain more information. Shelley is a registered dietitian and is very well respected in the gluten free community. Read her tips on how to increase gluten free fiber.
Shelley has shared with us, below, some of her tips on how to get more gluten-free fiber in our diets so that we can ensure our health is on the right track. I’d prefer to increase my fiber with food rather than artificial supplements. Her tips include so much more than just using flours. Read on and learn!
Healthy Tips to Increase Your Fiber Intake
- Gradually increase fiber in the diet (i.e., start with a small amount at a time to prevent major abdominal pain and gas).
- Increase consumption of fluids, especially water. Aim for a minimum of 6-10 glasses a day.
- Choose a variety of high-fiber gluten-free foods on a regular basis. See pages 105-110 [of her book].
- Choose gluten-free flour mixes or recipes with high-fiber flours and starches (e.g., almond, amaranth, brown rice, buckwheat, hazelnut, legumes [bean and pea flours], mesquite, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff).
- Add corn bran, ground flax, mesquite flour, rice bran or rice polish to pancake batter, in hot cereals or baked products.
- Extend hamburger patties or meat loaf with ground flax or cooked brown rice, quinoa, amaranth or teff.
- Use brown rice, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, teff or wild rice in salads or pilafs.
- Add chickpeas (garbanzo beans), kidney beans or other bean varieties to salads or casseroles.
- Make soups with lentils or split peas.
- Choose high-fiber snacks such as dried fruits, nuts, seeds, popcorn, gluten-free snack bars (with dried fruits, nuts and seeds), raw fruits and vegetables.
- Choose whole grain crackers such as Mary’s Gone Crackers or Crunchmaster Multi-Grain crackers.
- Add dried fruits, nuts or seeds to hot cereal; in salads or stir-fry dishes; in muffin, cookie or bread recipes.
- Eat whole fruits or vegetables rather than drinking juice.
- Choose higher-fiber pastas such as bean, brown rice, lentil, quinoa, soy or wild rice instead of white rice.
- In addition to fiber sources, your physician or dietitian may also recommend a commercial fiber supplement such as Citrucel® (powder), Fibersure® (powder) and Metamucil® (powder and capsules are gluten-free but not the wafers).
Excerpted from Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide by Shelley Case. Copyrighted 2011. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Learn more about Shelley case and her book at http://www.glutenfreediet.ca