About 90% of us fail to eat the recommended 30g of fibre a day, which means we could be missing out on the nutrients’ brain, heart, and bowel benefits.

That means most of us should focus on getting enough fibre to begin with. But dietitians say that eating it early on in the day can not only help us to achieve that goal, but might confer greater benefits too.

“If you start your day [of eating fibre] in the morning, you get a big advantage,” registered dietitian Lisa Young told TODAY.

And the Mayo Clinic said we should try to choose a breakfast with at least 5g of fibre.

Part of it has to do with motivation. If you begin your day with more fibre, you don’t have to make up for any gaps later on in the day when you’re more tired.

One study found that people who ate higher-fibre breakfasts went on to eat healthier, more fibre-rich fare throughout the day.

Secondly, our gut is more active earlier in the day.

That might mean that your body has more of a chance to process and enjoy the satiating benefits of fibre if you consume it first thing.

“For some people, especially those with bloating, reflux, or slower digestion, a super fibre-heavy meal right before bed can feel like it just kind of sits there,” registered dietitian Alyssa Simpson told EatingWell.

Another good reason to eat fibre at breakfast? A lot of breakfast foods, including cereals like bran flakes, porridge, wholemeal bread, and fruit, are naturally high in fibre, making it easier to sneak more of the nutrient into your diet.

″[Two] slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter followed by a medium-size orange should give you around 8.3g of fibre” at breakfast, for instance, the NHS said. That equates to almost a third of your daily goal.

Add more fruits to your breakfast, choose bran or wholegrain versions of your food, or add wheat bran to lower-fibre versions, the Mayo Clinic added.

I found that eating chia chocolate overnight oats, stewed pear porridge, overnight Weetabix “carrot cake”, or mango chia pudding gets me to at least half of my goal before noon.

No – eating it in the morning might have extra benefits, but the most important thing is to meet your fibre goal in the first place.

Eating too much fibre in one go can sometimes cause digestive issues, too, registered dietitian Brea Lofton from Lumen shared previously.

“I usually find that spreading it out across the day is better tolerated than having one giant fibre-heavy meal, especially for people with bloating or sensitive digestion”, Simpson said.

As a reminder, most adults should aim for 30g of fibre a day.

GP Dr Dawn Harper previously told HuffPost UK that she’s sceptical of “superfoods” – “there is no one single silver bullet that will enhance your chances of living a long and healthy life,” she said.

You might think that Dr Jennifer Di Noia, an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Paterson University, whose 2014 paper sought to find the best fruits and veg to reduce our disease risk, was more fond of terms like these.

But she had her own concerns. “Efforts to define… powerhouse fruits and vegetables (PFV), foods most strongly associated with reduced chronic disease risk… are lacking,” she wrote at the time.

So, the researcher set out research-backed terms.

In her study, “powerhouse” fruits and vegetables had to offer at least 10% more of 17 nutrients per 100 calories than other foods.

These nutrients the study looked at were:

1. potassium,
2. fibre,
3. protein,
4. calcium,
5. iron,
6. thiamin,
7. riboflavin,
8. niacin,
9. folate,
10. zinc,
11. vitamin A,
12. vitamin B,
13. vitamin B,
14. vitamin C,
15. vitamin D,
16. vitamin E, and
17. vitamin K.

These nutrients had been deemed of public health importance by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and Institute of Medicine, the paper read.

The more of these a plant packed per calorie, the higher the PFV’s nutrient density score was.

However, the paper stressed that these aren’t the only potentially health-boosting components of food; therefore, these metrics could miss some produce that’s great for us.

Of the 47 foods the study author looked at, 41 met her criteria for “PFV”. (The six that missed the mark were raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onion, and blueberries).

• Watercress – 100.00
• Napa cabbage – 91.99
• Chard – 89.27
• Beetroot greens – 87.08
• Spinach – 86.43
• Chicory – 73.36
• Leaf lettuce – 70.73
• Parsley – 65.59
• Romaine lettuce – 63.48
• Collard greens – 62.49
• Turnip greens – 62.12
• Mustard leaves – 61.39
• Endive – 60.44
• Chive – 54.80
• Kale – 49.07
• Dandelion leaves – 46.34
• Red pepper – 41.26
• Rocket – 37.65
• Broccoli – 34.89
• Pumpkin – 33.82
• Brussels sprouts – 32.23
• Spring onion – 27.35
• Kohlrabi – 25.92
• Cauliflower – 25.13
• Cabbage – 24.51
• Carrot – 22.60
• Tomato – 20.37
• Lemon – 18.72
• Iceberg lettuce – 18.28
• Strawberry – 17.59
• Radish – 16.91
• Winter squash (all varieties) – 13.89
• Orange – 12.91
• Lime – 12.23
• Grapefruit (pink and red) – 11.64
• Swede – 11.58
• Turnip – 11.43
• Blackberries – 11.39
• Leeks – 10.69
• Sweet potato – 10.51
• Grapefruit (white) – 10.47.

With that said, the best approach for a healthy diet is eating a balance of healthy foods. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables of all different kinds is liked to better heart health, the British Heart Foundation has said.