• Fibrous foods like beans, nuts, and seeds feed the "good" microbes in the gut.
• Most Americans are not meeting the daily recommended fiber intake.
• Emily Leeming opts for whole grains instead of white carbs and sprinkles seeds on her breakfast.

When it comes to your gut health, eating enough fiber is crucial.

Emily Leeming, a dietitian and gut microbiome researcher at King's College London, told Business Insider how to improve.

From our immune system to our emotions, a growing body of research suggests that the state of our gut health affects the whole body.

The gut microbiome, the trillions of "good" and "bad" microbes that live in the digestive lining, is heavily shaped by what we eat, said Leeming, the author of "Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science of Eating for Your Second Brain."

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends adults eat 14g of fiber per 1,000 calories. They say more than 90% of women and 97% of men do not.

Leeming, who used to work as a private chef, takes a simple approach to meeting her daily fiber goal, while keeping her meals tasting good.

She shared four tips for easily adding more fiber to your diet.

Stock up on high-fiber foods

Leeming knows which foods are particularly high in fiber and she makes sure to add them to her shopping list.

"There are high-fiber foods that probably surprise people like dark chocolate and avocados," she said. One avocado is about 10 grams of fiber, and two pieces of dark chocolate contain about two grams.

Leeming focuses on what she calls the "B-G B-Gs," which stands for beans, greens, berries, grains, and seeds.

"It's the beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds that tend to contain more fiber than the fruits and vegetables," she said, adding that fruits and veggies are of course still important.

She said berries tend to be higher in fiber than other fruits because they contain seeds.

Make your grains wholegrain

Wholegrains such as oats, quinoa, wild rice, and wholemeal bread, are great sources of fiber, Leeming said. Opting for a wholegrain such as brown rice over its white counterpart is an easy swap that will up your fiber intake, she said.

"I absolutely love pasta. So I do wholegrain pasta," she said. Leeming also adds legumes such as beans or lentils to dishes to up the fiber content even more.

"I'm a really big fan of beans and lentils with tomato sauce and some green veggies or maybe a salad on the side," she said.

Sprinkle nuts and seeds on top of any dish

Sprinkling some mixed nuts and seeds over a dish is a quick way to add some more fiber into your day.

"You can add them to anything. It could be your breakfast in the morning, it could be a salad that you've just made," Leeming said.

Chia seeds and flax seeds are particularly high in fiber, she said. Chia seeds contain about 30 grams of fiber per 100 grams, and 20 grams of flax seeds provide about 6 grams of fiber.

Keep healthy snacks in your line of sight

Leeming also keeps a jar of mixed nuts by her kettle so that she can snack on them when she goes to make a cup of tea.

"The things that I want to eat more of, I keep in my line of sight. That just visually prompts you to go for them as a first step," she said.

• Gut health is a key cornerstone of our overall health as it can affect many bodily systems.
• A diet high in fiber, fermented foods, and polyphenols can help support a healthy gut microbiome.
• Emily Leeming, a gut health expert and dietitian, sees her breakfast as a chance to boost her fiber intake.

A gut health scientist and dietitian shared the two breakfasts she often eats to help boost her gut microbiome.

Gut health is a key cornerstone to overall health because it is thought to influence everything from the immune and endocrine systems to the brain, Emily Leeming, a gut microbiome researcher at King's College London and a former private chef, told Business Insider. Experts consider a gut that contains a diverse community of microbes healthy.

What's great about the gut microbiome, the name for the trillions of microbes that live in the gut lining, is that what we eat shapes it, Leeming, who is based in London and the author of "'Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science of Eating for your Second Brain," said.

Eating a diet packed with fiber, polyphenols — the compounds that contribute to the pigment in many fruits and vegetables — and fermented foods, can help those microscopic bugs thrive, she said.

Leeming sees her first meal of the day as a key time to boost fiber by adding some veggies or fruits if she's preparing something sweet. She also tries to get around 20 to 30 grams of protein in each meal, including breakfast.

"It's those simple small changes that we make on a regular basis that actually have the most impact," Leeming said.

She combines all those elements while making her meals taste great.

"Food has to taste delicious, otherwise life is sad," she said.

Roasted veggies and eggs on rye pumpernickel toast

Leeming is a big fan of pumpernickel rye bread as it's high in fiber. "For one slice, it's around seven grams of fiber," she said.

She loves to pair it with roasted vegetables and eggs. She places them all in a small oven dish and roasts them for 15 minutes at 392 degrees Fahrenheit.

"At the moment, I've been doing zucchini and baby tomatoes," she said, adding that she mixes in harissa and crumbles feta cheese on top.

At the end, she sprinkles some mixed seeds on top for added fiber and protein.

"What's really surprising to many people is that whole grains, beans, nuts or seeds actually tend to contain much more fiber than fruits and vegetables, although of course we still need to get fruits and vegetables," she said.

Overnight oats

Overnight oats prepared in batches are another breakfast favorite, Leeming said. She uses rolled oats and adds kefir, grated carrot, apple, blueberries, cinnamon, mixed nuts, chia seeds, and flax seeds.

Leeming's oats contain lots of gut-loving ingredients. Chia seeds feature about 30 grams of fiber per 100 grams, and berries tend to be higher in fiber than other fruits because they contain seeds, she said. They're also high in polyphenols.

She opts for kefir, a fermented milk drink, instead of yogurt because it tends to contain more probiotics, the good microbes.

AT&T this week detailed plans to eliminate copper phone and DSL lines from its network while leaving many customers in rural areas with only wireless or satellite as an alternative.

In a presentation for analysts and investors on Tuesday, AT&T said it has a "wireless first" plan for 50 percent of its 500,000-square-mile wireline territory and a "fiber first" plan for the rest. The more sparsely populated half accounts for 10 percent of the potential customer base, and AT&T does not plan to build fiber home Internet for those users.

AT&T said it expects to be able to ditch copper because of state-level deregulation and the impending shift in power at the Federal Communications Commission, where Trump pick Brendan Carr is set to become the chairman. California is the only state out of 21 in AT&T's wireline territory that hasn't yet granted AT&T's request for deregulation of old networks.

Read full article

Comments