Tip: If people experience bloating or flatulence at first with legumes, rinsing them well can help. The gut adapts over time, you can train it to adapt.
Popcorn
Popcorn is one of the most underrated high-fibre foods. People often think of it as junk food, but homemade popcorn actually contains more than double the fibre of crisps.
I don’t completely ban crisps, or any food, but focus on balance. If we’re eating something low in fibre, I’ll pair it with something that feeds the gut microbiome too. So if we’re having crisps, I might also put out carrot sticks or cherry tomatoes.
Tip: Every Friday night we have movie night at home and I make popcorn with extra virgin olive oil. You absolutely can cook with high-quality olive oil – the polyphenols help protect the fats during heating. Sometimes I drizzle the popcorn with melted dark chocolate, or add cinnamon and a little honey if we want something sweeter.
Artichokes
Everyone’s talking about kale these days, and it’s excellent, but an unsung fibre-rich hero is the humble artichoke. These have 6g of fibre per 100g compared to kale’s 4g.
Artichokes are naturally very high in prebiotic fibre, which specifically feeds beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacteria, which help produce that all-important butyrate. The key with vegetables is diversity. Different plants feed different microbes, so the more variety you eat, the better.
Tip: I usually buy jarred artichokes because they’re convenient. I’ll add them to salads, soups, sandwiches or pizzas.
Pearl barley
Pearl barley contains more than double the fibre of brown rice, which surprises a lot of people because brown rice has such a strong health halo. In reality, brown rice isn’t that much better for us than white. Swapping rice for pearl barley is easy.
