Fiber-Maxxing Oatmeal

High-Fiber Fruits Locally Grown in Southern California:

Blackberries
Raspberries
Peaches
Nectarines
Plums
Figs
Apricots
Blueberries

Peaches in season? Add ‘em in!

With fiber-maxxing coming into vogue lately, it seems obvious that you should increase your fiber intake to improve gut motility (as Hannah Goldfield of The New Yorker so eloquently puts it, “‘gut motility’, formerly known as shitting”).

Yes, this is true! But what can you actually change in your everyday routine to get there?

As I get older, it has become much clearer to me how the food I eat impacts the way I feel. Before making this easy breakfast swap a daily habit, I often struggled with bloating and discomfort.

I thought that eating things like cheesy eggs on toast made for a decently well-rounded breakfast, but I was missing out on fiber and fruit intake and actually slowing down my digestion. Who knew? That’s when I started to investigate sneaking more fiber into my diet.

If you’re like me, the idea of adding psyllium husk powder to a glass of water or juice is unappealing and, frankly, unrealistic for my day-to-day routine. (Sorry, yuck!)

Getting enough fiber needs to be easy—and it needs to be delicious.

Then I thought: instead of forcing yourself to drink something unappetizing, why not just try making a really great bowl of oatmeal?

Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts, so for me it’s an easy sell. It’s wholesome, filling, and totally customizable. Whether making rolled oats or steel-cut, you can add so many yummy toppings that make it a fun part of your morning, rather than pinching your nose while trying to guzzle down a glass of thick, gooey sludge. (For my psyllium husk girlies: do you! To each their own.)

So when I make my oatmeal in the morning, I follow a lot of great tips I picked up from @plantsfirstnutrition, a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN), to bump up the foods that get my digestion in tip-top shape.

One great tip that has leveled-up my oatmeal is adding frozen berries to the water. Berries (fresh or frozen) are among the best fruit sources of antioxidants, according to the Mayo Clinic. They’re also packed with fiber and Vitamin C. What’s not to love?

Just pour water into your pot, throw in a cup or two of frozen mixed berries, and bring it all to a boil. Then, add in your oats and cook as directed. I’ve been loving this easy add-in because it makes the oats go from sad beige to a dreamy purple. The berries also boost the natural sweetness!

Another tip: add kiwi on top with the skin still on. It contains actinidin, which makes it a digestion powerhouse. Research backs this up too: studies have consistently found that eating kiwi helps improve GI symptoms. If you’re local to California, the kiwi harvest season starts in late fall and runs through May.

For those of us who want to take preventative measures against things like colon cancer and other gut problems, packing soluble and insoluble fiber into our breakfast can make all the difference. This bowl naturally covers both types of fiber, so no need to overthink the ratio.

I also dutifully pay the “peanut butter tax,” coined by @plantsfirstnutrition, for healthy fats and, let’s face it, joy. Who doesn’t love peanut butter? It’s the perfect ingredient to blend the flavors together and makes this breakfast absolutely decadent. And, of course, PB’s partner in crime: the humble banana.

Bananas, particularly those on the green side, have resistant starch. Resistant starch keeps your blood sugar levels steady and acts as a prebiotic. In my opinion, the peanut butter & banana combo completes the flavor profile of this fiber-ific breakfast.

From there, I started having fun adding my own toppings to this gut-healthy meal. I add probiotic prunes on top, which have two-fold benefits: they feed all of those crucial gut bacteria with the probiotics, and have a type of sugar (sorbitol) that signals your body to go. In the hot oatmeal, the prunes become rehydrated, caramelly goodness, making them my favorite part of this entire bowl.

The best part of this breakfast is that you can add whatever you want!

This single bowl packs in a whopping 17 grams of fiber, frontloading roughly 68% of your daily recommended fiber intake* in one meal. So give it a trial run for a week or two and see how you feel!

*Recommended fiber for women under 50 is 25g/ day.