Dietary fibre is defined as the non-digestible carbohydrate portion of a plant that is subsequently able to be fermented in the colon by microorganisms. There are many types of dietary fibre (cellulose, pectin, lignin, oligosaccharides, resistant starches, hydrocolloids and alcohol sugars) that can broadly be classified as soluble or insoluble. High intakes of dietary fibre in general are associated with a reduced risk of a number of diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and evidence suggests that those who consume more dietary fibre are also protected from obesity. Consumption of dietary fibre is declining in Western nations, mainly because intakes of whole grain foods, a good source of fibre, are decreasing. This decline in fibre mirrors rising intakes of refined carbohydrates, consumption of which is associated with increased risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.
The association between dietary fibre and disease has been widely reported in the literature. For example, research1 published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2010 investigated the association between dietary fibre and cardiovascular disease in 58,730 Japanese men and women between the ages of 40 and 79 years. The subjects were assessed at baseline, and then at a follow up 14 years later deaths from cardiovascular disease and dietary fibre intakes were assessed using medical records and frequent food questionnaires, respectively. The results showed that total insoluble and soluble fibre intakes were inversely associated with risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease, which supports evidence from previous studies looking at Western populations. When fibre sources were put into categories, cereal fibre and fibre from fruit were inversely associated with cardiovascular mortality, but vegetable fibre was not, suggesting that properties between fibres differed with regard protection from disease.
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