Fiber won’t show up alongside collagen coffee or infrared saunas on your wellness feed, but if you want to feel clearer and lighter inside out, incorporating different types of fiber into your diet is where it can all start.
We’ve been trained to count macronutrients—protein, carbs, fats—as if they’re the whole story. But fiber doesn’t play by those rules. You can’t just “hit your goal” by eating the same foods on repeat. And yet, that’s exactly what most of us do: Cycle through the same handful of fiber-rich staples and assume we’re covered.
As Dr. Madhur Motwani, a clinician-scientist, explains: “While the amount of fiber is important, diversity is equally crucial. You want them all coming together to create short-chain fatty acids, which are going to impact your entire metabolic health.”
You don’t need to track which food does what. Just start including a wider mix—that’s the secret to unlocking fiber’s true potential.
The different types of fiber your gut craves
We’ve popularised kale and broccoli as the face of fiber, but every plant food—grains, greens, lentils, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds—contains a different kind. Each feeds a unique group of microbes in your gut.
Think of your gut like an organization. Each fiber-rich food fuels a different department. If one is overworked and the rest neglected, the system slows down. Your body doesn’t need just one superfood; it needs a full staff, all working in sync.
Case in point: The fiber in beetroot nourishes a different “team” than what’s found in flaxseed or chickpeas. Even between leafy greens—amaranth, spinach, methi—the microbial impact varies.
And since each bacterial strain supports a different body function, the more varied your fiber sources, the more balanced your entire internal ecosystem becomes.
Gut health expert Dr. Will Bulsiewicz compares the gut to the Amazon rainforest. Its health depends on biodiversity. In your body, that translates to more stable moods, clearer skin and better digestion, without obsessing over food rules or micromanaging your meals.
What fiber diversity looks like in real life
You don’t need a kitchen overhaul or 25 ingredients in every meal. Focus on variety across the week, not every single plate. Start by noticing which foods you’re repeating and where you could swap something in.
For example, most of the meals we eat revolve around one or two staples—maybe it’s rice, or maybe it’s pasta, or lentils, cous cous, or quinoa. Can you slightly reduce that base—not the calories of your overall meal, but the dominance of that one source—and add a small side of something different? That’s a super simple way to diversify your fiber-intake without eating more. We’ve got some examples below.
The high-fiber line-up
- Chia seeds. They’re easy to use and high in fiber, especially when soaked.
- Avocado. Creamy and rich, it helps stabilise blood sugar.
- Nutritional yeast flakes. It’s a savory fiber boost to sprinkle on top of your toast, salads, or roasted veggies.
- Ground flax or pumpkin seed powder. Mild in flavor, they’re easy to stir into oats, smoothies, or yoghurt.
- Quinoa. A light grain, which offers both fiber and protein.
- Chickpeas and black-eyed beans. Rotate these into your meals to support microbial diversity.
- Red and black rice. It’s more fibrous than white rice.
- Spinach.
Even with just these small tweaks, adding different types of fiber to your meal, can give your gut new information to work with. You don’t need perfection, just a bit more intention.
While I still take a good daily probiotic, your gut needs its first line of support from food—diverse, fiber-rich, plant-based meals that do what capsules can’t. There’s a whole world of nourishing fiber add-ins that taste good and do good, even if they sound boring on paper. When you start building that relationship with food, it becomes less about rules and more about rhythm.
Nikita Mehta is the founder of Embodh, an Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coach