A new study from the World Health Organization says, eating a high-fiber diet, can greatly help reduce your risk of serious illness and death. But are you really thinking about your fiber intake on a regular basis?

Jenny Schmidtlein from Topeka says, “I definitely don’t think about fiber everyday. It’s not really on my mind to think about in my diet and things like that.”

Even though fiber can be found in a wide range of foods, on average people consume just 15-grams of fiber a day, a far cry from the 25 to 35 grams experts recommend.

Heather Beckman, the co-owner of Lifestyle Nutrition in Topeka, says one reason people arent getting enough fiber, may be because of trendy low carb diets.

“Some of these diets that are trying to lower or eliminate carbohydrates, it will also lower and eliminate your fiber intake. We need fiber on a daily basis. Fiber has one purpose, it’s going in one end and out the other. Since it’s not necessarily absorbing into the body you can subtract that from the total carbohydrate count. So when you are looking at the carbohydrates, on the food label listed directly below it is fiber. If something has 20 carbohydrates and 10 grams of fiber, twenty minus that ten, so it only has 10 carbs in it that you should count,” explains Beckman. 

Alongside not counting towards your overall carb intake, meeting your fiber goals each day will help you lose weight. 

Beckman says, “Not in-taking enough fiber can actually inhibit your weight loss. Getting enough fiber in your diet can keep your digestive system healthy, keep things moving, keeps nutrition absorbed into your body, and it also helps regulate your blood sugars, which can also help in weight loss too. If you can not get it through your fruits and vegetables, a good fiber supplement would be ideal.”