Redefining dietary fibre: potentially a recipe for disaster

Various definitions of dietary fibre that do not fulfil these criteria are in use worldwide, and there is a great need for a single, scientifically sound definition. A panel set up by the American National Academy of Sciences has proposed a definition of fibre.1 The panel proposes that dietary fibre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Lancet (British edition) Vol. 358; no. 9296; pp. 1833 - 1834
Main Authors Goodlad, Robert A, Englyst, Hans N
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2001
Elsevier Limited
Subjects
Carbohydrates
Clinical Trials as Topic
Colorectal cancer
Diet
Dietary Carbohydrates - classification
Dietary fiber
Dietary Fiber - adverse effects
Digestion
Fatty acids
Health
Humans
Physiology
Recipes
Small intestine
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Summary:Various definitions of dietary fibre that do not fulfil these criteria are in use worldwide, and there is a great need for a single, scientifically sound definition. A panel set up by the American National Academy of Sciences has proposed a definition of fibre.1 The panel proposes that dietary fibre be defined as being all nondigestible carbohydrates and lignin that are intrinsic and intact in plants. This non-digestibility-based definition will include many substances not generally considered as fibre, such as resistant starch and several types of non-digestible oligosaccharides (panel). The NAS panel also proposes a second category, "added fibre", which will be isolated, non-digestible carbohydrates that have "beneficial" physiological effects in human beings. The final, total fibre value will thus be the sum of "dietary fibre" and "added fibre".
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)06882-9