Eating fibre is important to keep your bowels moving well and fill you up. Here are lots of ideas that are high in fibre including breakfast cereals and breads.

Disclaimer: Just Average Jen is not connected with any weight loss plan. Please check nutritional values and/or syns yourself as these are approximate to the best of my knowledge.

Why does Slimming World have healthy extras?

If you are looking to follow Slimming World and have read my Unofficial Slimming World guide but are a bit confused about the healthy extra choices this should help you.

There are two healthy extras, Healthy Extra B is the one I want to share with you today with a bumper healthy b list.

You may see this referred to as healthy b, Hex b, hexb, or HEB (I tend to use a mixture!), basically, they are all the same thing, your fibre element of the plan.

The Slimming World diet, however much they say it is not, is primarily down to calories. All diets are, aren’t they? You can only lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat.

There are some crucial elements to nutrition that you may not be getting from your diet which is why they have the healthy extra choices. Healthy extra a (also known as HEA, Hex a or healthy a) is for calcium, and healthy extra b is for fibre.

We all know without fibre you can become constipated and generally, you don’t have the bowel movements you should.

Overnight oats
Overnight oats

How do you consume the Slimming World healthy extra b?

The choice is actually completely yours. If food has fibre in then whether it is cooked or raw the fibre element is still the same. This means you can count it as your hex b, healthy b or healthy extra b choice, whatever you wish to call it.

Many people have their healthy extra b choice as part of a meal but you can choose to do whatever suits your lifestyle. If you want to blend it into a smoothie then you can do that too.

How many healthy b do you have?

In general, you have one healthy b choice on the Slimming World EE plan. If you are a target member you may have more heb choices depending on how easily you are maintaining your weight and advice from your consultant.

Is Slimming World Healthy b essential?

No one can make you eat anything. Whichever diet you choose to follow, and there are many to choose from, it is your decision what you put in your mouth.

Slimming World advises you to have a third of your plate as speed foods, one healthy extra b choice and two healthy extra a choices. Of course, this is just advised. People can, and will, lose weight without this.

Every person is unique in their own way, with their own individual body chemistry and preferences. Find what works best for you. Of course, however, if you are not having your healthy extra choices then Slimming World would say you are not actually following their plan.

Unofficial Slimming World Healthy Extra B cereals

Many people choose to have a bowl of cereal as their Healthy Extra B choice. It is a great way of having a filling breakfast and ensures you also get your fibre.

If you follow a gluten-free diet then don’t worry there are plenty of healthy extra choices for you too. Here are some of the cereals you can choose and how much of them are considered by Slimming World on the extra easy plan as a Healthy Extra B choice.

40g of cereal for a healthy b choice

  • Plain porridge oats
  • Puffed wheat (not sugar puffs though, sorry!)
  • Alpen no added sugar muesli
  • Dorset Cereals Simply nutty muesli
  • All-Bran, Golden crunch
  • Shredded Wheat bitesize – plain, multigrain barley and spelt or honey and nut. If you prefer Red Berries and Vanilla you get 45g of that flavour, I have no idea why!
  • Fruit and fibre cereal.
  • Shreddies or their own brand equivalent
  • Grape Nuts (sound strange but are really nice and almost biscuit-like)
  • Cheerios – Oat, honey or multigrain cheerios.
oats infographic with the health benefits to know about oats.

45g of cereal for healthy extra b choice

  • Aldi fruit wheats (Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry flavours)
  • Bran flakes
  • Oat bran
  • Jordan’s Natural Muesli (no added sugar)
  • Weetabix crunchy bran (I love this!)

50g of cereal for a healthy b choice

All-Bran or other supermarkets own brands similar cereal.

Cereal you don’t have to weigh for hexb

Don’t get excited, this does not mean that you can eat as much as you like. It just means you simply count the item eg Weetabix.

Weetabix – 2 biscuits of either plain, protein, chocolate, banana, red berries or protein with chocolate chips. It does not include Oatibix unfortunately.

2 Shredded Wheat

Cereal bars
Cereal bars

Unofficial Slimming World healthy extra b Bread

If you worry you will miss your sandwiches then using your Healthy Extra B choice for bread could be a lifesaver.

You have a few choices open to you so don’t listen to people who say you can only have a certain brand as this is not right.

  • 60g wholemeal bread in any form you choose, sliced, crumbs, roll, pitta or even dough made into a pizza base!
  • 1 Warburtons gluten-free multiseed sandwich thin
  • You can even have a shop-bought sandwich on wholemeal bread. Simply deduct the 6 syns for the bread from the syns of the sandwich.
  • 60g Rye bread
  • High fibre gluten-free white bread 60g for hexb
  • High-fibre gluten-free white rolls or brown/multiseed rolls 60g is your heb choice

Unofficial Slimming World healthy b Cooked fruit and nuts

If you find that cereal or bread just doesn’t agree with you then there are other options you can choose such as cooked fruit, nuts and seeds.

Here are just a few of the options you have to choose from. (weights are the cooked weights)

Cooked fruit syns and hex b choices

All the following cooked fruits are around 7 syns if you want to count them as syns instead of your healthy b choice.

  • 250g of apples, or 300g if they are cooking apples.
  • 250g of blackberries or raspberries
  • 500g rhubarb
  • 200g Strawberries

Nuts syns and syns for seeds

Raw nuts or seeds can be enjoyed as a healthy extra or used in a recipe. Here are some of our favourite choices.

All the below are usually considered as one hex b choice or around 7 syns.

  • 20 Almonds as healthy extra b – a popular choice!
  • 25 Hazelnuts (unfortunately you can’t have Nutella and claim this counts as hazelnuts!)
  • 40 pistachio nuts (my favourite nuts!)
  • 2 level tbsp pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, chia or flax seeds.
  • 20g of pine nuts, perfect in a pasta salad or similar.

Of course, this shows how varied they can be so you do need to check them out with Slimming World to be sure that you know what fits into your plan as a hexb choice and what doesn’t.

Baked oats
Baked oats

Recipes that use your healthy b choice

Remember you do not need to have your healthy extra on its own or as a sandwich or cereal there are so many options available.

Here are just a few ideas to use your hexb in a recipe.

Overnight oats
Overnight oats

Cereal bars or crispbreads

Sometimes you just want a quick option to pick up and eat on the go for breakfast or a tasty snack. Here are some healthy b favourites of ours.

Alternatively, why not use your healthy extra allowance and make your own cereal bars?

  • 2 Slimming World Hi-Fi bars
  • 2 Aldi Benefit bars (Harvest Morn), all flavours.
  • 2 Alpen Light cereal bars, all flavours. Do not confuse these with the regular Alpen bars though.
  • 1 Fibre one Milk chocolate popcorn or Peanut butter popcorn bar is a tasty hex b choice.
  • 4 Ryvita crunchy rye bread in either Dark rye, multigrain, original, sesame, sweet onion or pumpkin seeds and oats.

Unofficial Slimming World healthy b Gluten-free Choices

Being gluten-free doesn’t mean that you need to miss out on your Healthy Extra B. There are a number of gluten-free cereals you can have alongside gluten-free bread so having to avoid gluten doesn’t mean it is difficult to have your heb choice.

Dorset cereals Gluten-free tasty tropical or blissful berry muesli, both of which you can have 40g of for heb. Lizi’s does gluten-free granola which you can have 30g of but it can be tricky to get hold of.

If you choose a high-fibre gluten-free bread then you can enjoy 60g of it as your hexb in any way you choose. Gluten-free oats can be enjoyed in the same way as other oats such as porridge, overnight oats or baked oats with the same portion size of 40g as your heb choice.

Wraps and tortillas

It is easy to panic when you see a recipe using tortillas or wraps on Slimming World as they can be high in syns.

Whilst this isn’t always the case it is worth remembering that you have a daily syn allowance so you can enjoy foods that are not syn-free and if you love them then why not.

There are no wraps or tortillas which are syn-free on Slimming World, unfortunately.

There are also only a few choices at the moment that you can have as your healthy extra b choice.

Healthy Extra B choice wraps

BFree has a variety of wraps which are all perfect for different diets such as gluten-free etc. Check each item for specific ingredients.

Some of these wraps can be enjoyed as a healthy extra b choice, there are not many but I have listed the ones I am aware of below.

Of course, always check the Slimming World website for the latest heb values.

  • BFree Quinoa and chia seed wraps, wheat and gluten-free 6 pack – 42g, 5 syns each (approx) or healthy extra b choice.
  • BFree Multigrain wraps, wheat and gluten-free 4 or 6 pack – 42g, 4.5 syns each (approx) or healthy extra b choice.
  • WW White wraps 6 pack – 48g each 5.5 syns (approx) or healthy extra b choice.
  • WW Wholemeal wraps 6 pack – 50g each 6 syns (approx) or healthy extra b choice.
b free wraps

Other syns for wraps

These wraps are all other choices if you are happy to use your syns. Please note all syns are approximate and if you are unsure you should always check.

  • Average Mini wraps or tortillas 4.5 syns each
  • Average White wraps or tortillas 9 syns each
  • Average Wholemeal wraps/tortillas 8.5 syns each
  • Average Seeded wraps/tortillas 8 syns each
  • BFree High protein wraps 4 pack – 42g 5 syns each
  • BFree Avocado wraps, wheat and gluten-free 4 pack – 42g 5.5 syns each
  • BFree Sweet Potato wraps, wheat and gluten-free 6 pack – 42g, 4.5 syns each
Slimming World books

If you found this helpful please share!

10 Comments

  1. Wow this is fab, so helpful , i want to join slimming world again bit just cant afford it i dont like sitting after weigh in and i tried ti buy the online package amd its £60 for three months which just isnt practical thank you so much

  2. Tina Flynn says:

    This is a huge help to me as a returning follower. I needed to brush up and one thing I didnt realise was the great choice of Healthy B’s I can actually eat.

  3. Jill Wilkinson says:

    Very helpful thank you

  4. Thank you ? great help!!

  5. Great article. I have to avoid gluten and this article have given me so many more ideas of what else I can use. Thank you and I will be subscribing.

  6. I am on SlimmingWorld and have been for awhile . I’ve just lost my mojo and need some inspiration with this flipping Covid spoiling things and having to care for my mum and my family and work in the NHS!!

  7. Great article. It’s not always easy to see the new HE choices that are allowed so this has made life a lot easier for me. Thanks

  8. Very useful information. I really enjoyed reading it many thanks

  9. Sue Spencer says:

    Really helpful articles and good advice, thank you

  10. I am not on Slimming World but am thinking about joining. Your articles have taught me lots. Thank you!

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