UNTEASING DIETARY FIBRE Available to Purchase

Evaluating the hypothesis that dietary fibre is a protective factor and interpretation of the nutritional advice to ‘eat more fibre’ is dependent on quantitative measurements of dietary fibre. The analysis poses several very difficult analytical issues. Firstly there are the technical issues which arise whenever one analyses a complex mixture, especially of carbohydrates. Secondly, because different components exert different physiological effects, there is a need to characterise as well as quantify the dietary fibre if one wishes to understand or predict its effects; and thirdly, the definition of dietary fibre is couched in physiological terms that do not lend themselves to translation into analytical procedures.