FOCUS ON FIBRE

There is considerable epidemiological and direct experimental evidence concerning the nutritional benefits of dietary fibre. Over the last few years, and particularly as a result of the publication of The F‐Plan Diet, public awareness and interest in this topic has increased enormously in the UK and there has been a growing demand both for information about the dietary fibre content of foods and for food products containing higher levels of dietary fibre. It is becoming increasingly important, therefore, to understand exactly what is meant by the term ‘dietary fibre’. In this article Helen F. Kearns, BSc and Gillian D.A. Lowy, MA, review the methods that are used for the determination of fibre in foodstuffs, outline some of the physiological effects of dietary fibre, and discuss how values quoted for the dietary fibre contents of foods may be interpreted in the light of their physiological role.