TEASING OUT DIETARY FIBRE

While the scientific reaction to many of the claims made for the benefits of dietary fibre is ‘it's too good to be true’, there is wide acceptance by the general public and the media that an increased intake of dietary fibre is a good thing. There is, however, still confusion about what dietary fibre is and how much there is in foods and the diet. In this, the first of two articles, Professor D.A.T. Southgate and Richard Faulks, of the AFRC Institute of Food Research, Norwich attempt to answer the basic question, what is dietary fibre?