Poonam Desai is an ER doctor with two decades of experience who studied and recommended daily practices for a long life to her patients well before it became her main focus.
In 2017, she officially started practicing longevity medicine, teaching patients the tools they need to structure their routines with living long and staying healthy in mind.
For her own health and wellness, Desai, who is also a doctor of osteopathic medicine, practices the habits that she typically suggests.
“Everything I’m doing, I want to optimize it,” she told CNBC Make It in March.
This includes upping her fiber intake: “Every single day I try to get at least 30 to 40 grams of fiber in my diet,” Desai says. The average American eats about half of that amount of fiber, if not less, according to Harvard Health Publishing which places the typical fiber intake at just 10 to 15 grams daily.
Here’s how you can take a page out of the longevity medicine doctor’s book and get more fiber in your daily diet.
What a longevity doctor eats to get 40 grams of fiber a day
There are certain food groups that are rich in fiber, like:
FruitsVegetablesLegumesNutsWhole grains
“One of my favorite ways to get fiber into my diet is to put a tablespoon of chia seeds in 30 ounces of water,” Desai says.
Desai also makes large bowls of mixed fruits or vegetables daily to eat more fiber. Most days, she gets a healthy serving of both.
“I have a huge bowl of different fruits almost daily. It could be apples, oranges, kiwi, berries, blueberries, strawberries,” she says. “I pair that with a lot of raw vegetables like raw cauliflower, raw broccoli and cabbage.”
As a vegetarian, Desai often gets healthy amounts of fiber from the plant-based proteins she eats. “I try to do one serving of either lentils or beans per day.”
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