Take it to the max with a fibre-rich diet: 'Most people do not get enough fibre'

 Ali Honour, author of Beans, says beans, peas, and legumes of all kinds are an easy, inexpensive, and nutritious way to incorporate fibre into the diet

‘Beans’ author Ali Honour says that beans, peas, and legumes are packed with nutrients, affordable, and climate-friendly. Picture: Jolene Cronin

For anyone who was around in the 1980s, the recent advent of fibermaxing on TikTok might sound like a return to the F-Plan. That way of eating was based on Audrey Eyton’s bestselling The F-Plan Diet, first published in 1982. When the book with its eye-catching typographical cover design arrived in rural Ireland, it seemed to be based mostly on eating All-Bran for breakfast and lots of baked potatoes. The emphasis on high fibre foods didn’t stick around; people moved on to new, different dietary promises, but now it seems fibre is back.

An umbrella review published last year in ScienceDirect Journal on the impact of fibre consumption on health found that higher dietary fibre intake is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and lower risk of certain cancers.