Unless you’re a lentil-loving veggie-phile who prefers bean burgers over beef, the chances are, your body is crying out for extra fibre.
That’s true for 95 per cent of adults in the UK and US. As a result, we’re missing out on the roughage we need to keep our gut microbes happy, our immune systems powerful, our poops soft, our hearts healthy – and so much more.
But trying nobly to add fibre to every single meal – in the form of fruit, veggies, wholegrains, legumes and pulses – can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re used to low-fibre eating.
If you’re looking to up your fibre intake, the best place to start is breakfast. It’s called ‘the most important meal of the day’ for a reason – what we eat in the morning can help set us up for the day ahead.
But starting your day with a fibre-packed brekkie not only makes it easier to manage your fibre intake; it can also make the fibre you do eat more effective. Here’s why.
Setting you up for the day
Studies have found that choices we make at breakfast can influence what we eat for lunch, dinner and snacks.
In fact, an Australian study found that adults who ate a high-fibre breakfast were likely to eat healthier, higher-fibre foods for the rest of the day, compared to those who skipped breakfast or chose lower-fibre options.
“If you’re having a balanced breakfast, it’s likely to make healthy eating easier later on too,” says Dr Emily Leeming, a nutrition scientist at King’s College London. “It’s like how, intuitively, we think breakfast will help set you up for the rest of the day.”
Fibre is unlike most other nutrients – such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats – because we don’t directly digest it. Instead, it travels through the gut and feeds the microbes living in the colon.
And on its journey through the digestive system, fibre helps us feel full. It adds bulk to our food, slows down how it travels through the stomach, helps stretch the stomach muscles, and therefore sends more fullness signals to the brain.
The nutrient affects how we extract energy from food too. When carbs are combined with fibre, their sugars enter our bloodstream more gradually, keeping our blood sugar and energy levels more stable.
That, in turn, affects our appetite. In 2021, scientists discovered that people whose breakfasts have a milder effect on their blood sugar – in part, due to fibre – usually go on to feel less hungry, and consume fewer calories, for the rest of the day.
A similar pattern holds true even when scientists don’t measure blood sugar. Studies consistently find that after eating a fibre-rich breakfast – whether that’s porridge or wholegrain bread – we tend to feel fuller when compared to a lower-fibre, same-calorie alternative.
So, a healthy breakfast doesn’t just affect your morning; it has knock-on benefits later on too.
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Helping you in the bathroom
Still not convinced? Don’t worry – that’s not where the positives end. Breakfast fibre can also help you do a perfect morning poop.
That’s true no matter when you eat it.
Harvard gastroenterologist Dr Trisha Pasricha, author of You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong, says: “One of the most predictable ways to improve your poop is simply to eat more fibre. When you see that softer, more effortless poop, and you’re not straining, that tells me that you’re meeting your fibre goals.”
But fibre is especially effective in the morning, because it supports the natural circadian rhythm of your gut.
According to Pasricha, your colon is dormant while you sleep. “Then when you wake up, you get cues from your environment – and [your colon] wakes up,” she says. “It buzzes with activity most strongly for the first one or two hours on waking.”
That activity includes subtle contractions that push your poop towards its exit. A healthy, fibre-full breakfast can help stimulate that internal voyage, so you have a satisfying poop without straining.
“You can make or break your day depending on whether you’ve had a good bowel movement in the morning,” says Pasricha. “I fully believe that.”
Research agrees. When 153 adults started eating a high-fibre wheat-bran breakfast in the morning, they reported much better gut health after just two weeks.
Participants said that they could poop more easily, and that they felt less bloated, less sluggish, happier and more energetic – thanks to just 5.4g of extra morning fibre.
Meeting your fibre goals
Switching to a higher-fibre breakfast isn’t just extra powerful, it’s also relatively easy.
Unlike lunch or dinner, many of us eat the same breakfast every morning, so making a simple swap here could cumulatively have a significant impact on your overall diet.
Leeming says: “Breakfast is a key opportunity to add in fibre. If you’re skipping breakfast, it’s going to be much harder for you to get the fibre you need."
That’s not to say that brekkie should be our only focus. The average adult – in both the UK and US – is eating just over half the recommended amount of 30g (1oz) of fibre per day.
In such dire circumstances, breakfast alone is unlikely to cut it. Leeming adds that suddenly introducing a lot of fibre to breakfast – while continuing to eat very little at lunch or dinner – may not do our digestion any favours either.
“The best thing is to eat fibre across the day, because it can take time for your gut to adapt to fibre,” she says. “It’s a little bit like rocket fuel for your gut microbiome. You’re less likely to have uncomfortable symptoms if you’re spreading it across the day.”
Low and slow – that’s the best way to incorporate more fibre into your diet, explains Leeming, to avoid bloating and tummy aches. However, it’s also true that every little helps.
“Even small amounts of fibre – just seven grams more per day – is related to significantly lower risk of heart disease, bowel cancer and type 2 diabetes,” she says.
And you may find it easier to concentrate on morning upgrades first, since so many breakfast foods are naturally fibre-rich.
For instance, the cereal aisle is lined with wholegrain options, so you could easily switch your cornflakes for something like shredded wheat.
Alternatively, swap your white toast for seeded rye bread. Or try porridge, overnight oats, Greek yoghurt or kefir with a generous helping of high-fibre toppings, such as nut butter, seeds and berries.
If you eat it every day, this simple breakfast swap could make a major difference to your overall health.
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