Dietary Fiber: How Did We Get Where We Are?

Dietary fiber has been a topic of considerable interest among nutritionists and clinicians for the past 50 years. Many studies on fiber have concentrated on fiber isolates, resulting in findings that have ignored fiber as a component of fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, and legumes in the general d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of nutrition 2005-01, Vol.25 (1), p.1-8
Main Authors: Eastwood, M, Kritchevsky, D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anticarcinogenic activity
Biological and medical sciences
breakfast cereals
breast neoplasms
Carcinogenesis, carcinogens and anticarcinogens
cardioprotective effect
cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control
colorectal neoplasms
Dietary fiber
Dietary Fiber - metabolism
dietary nutrient sources
diverticulum
Feeding. Feeding behavior
Fermentation
Foods and miscellaneous
fruits (food)
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
gastrointestinal motility
Gastrointestinal tract
health promotion
Humans
intestinal microorganisms
legumes
Lipids
Medical sciences
Metabolites
Neoplasms - prevention & control
Nutrition Policy - trends
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
nuts
plant-based foods
prebiotics
rumen fermentation
Secondary metabolites
Tumors
Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems
Vitamins
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Summary:Dietary fiber has been a topic of considerable interest among nutritionists and clinicians for the past 50 years. Many studies on fiber have concentrated on fiber isolates, resulting in findings that have ignored fiber as a component of fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, and legumes in the general diet. The principle actions of fiber are to alter the nature of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and to modify the absorption of other nutrients and chemicals. Fiber is but one component of plant food, and to neglect the other components--be they proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, or the secondary metabolites--is to seriously limit our understanding. Much of the effort expended in defining fiber and studying the fiber isolate would have been better focused using this whole-plant-food approach. Greater progress in our understanding of the relevance of fiber in the etiology of disease would have been achieved if a more holistic approach had been followed.
ISSN:0199-9885
1545-4312
DOI:10.1146/annurev.nutr.25.121304.131658