How to eat more fibre and why you should!
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Food Chain presenter Ruth Alexander was confident that she was eating a healthy diet, in particular, a diet that included enough fibre. But it turns out, like many of us, her fibre intake has been falling short of the recommended amount.
In fact all over the world most of us are failing to eat enough, despite the growing trend for so called "fibremaxxing" where people try to maximise their daily intake. So how can we boost our fibre intake? And does it really have to involve chia seeds?
Ruth picks the brains of fibre expert Professor Joanne Slavin from the University of Minnesota and Fathima Abdoola, known as The Cultural Dietitian, based in Brisbane Australia. And psychologist Phillippa Lally from the University of Surrey in the UK, explains how we can make our well intentioned new habits stick.
Producer: Lexy O’Connor
Sound engineer: Andrew Mills
(Image: A close up of a steaming bowl of Persian barley soup, in a blue bowl, with a woman’s hands holding it. Credit: Getty Images)
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Your time starts now. |
| 0:07.2 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:09.4 | Absolutely right. |
| 0:11.5 | So, you might like to know that the BBC makes loads of other podcasts. |
| 0:15.6 | Really? |
| 0:16.4 | Wow. |
| 0:17.2 | Many of them are very funny. |
| 0:19.1 | Which I think means... |
| 0:20.1 | A hatful of ha ha haas. |
| 0:21.7 | And energy. |
| 0:37.6 | Even if we do say so ourselves. I agree 100% to that. Find them all on BBC Sounds. Just tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Just search comedy on BBC Sounds. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. It feels like anyone who's anyone on social media right now is fibre maxing, |
| 0:43.7 | maximising the fiber content in their breakfast, smoothies, brownies, you name it. |
| 0:49.3 | Hey, quick question. Are you fiber maxing? |
| 0:52.0 | Everybody's talking about fiber maxing, but most people have no idea. Let me explain. |
| 0:57.0 | This half cup serving of oats only has 4 grams of fiber. But to fiber max even more, here's what you could eat. |
| 1:03.0 | And yet, out here in real life, most of us aren't eating nearly enough fiber. |
| 1:08.0 | In the UK and the US, for example, studies show about nine out of 10 people |
| 1:13.1 | don't, with average intake about half what it should be. This is the food chain from the BBC World |
| 1:19.5 | Service with me, Ruth Alexander. And this week, we're finding out how to eat more fibre, |
| 1:25.0 | what easy tweaks and swaps you can do to your everyday meals without |
| 1:29.4 | compromising on flavour. And we'll be talking about how when you decided you want to make a change |
... |
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