Dietary Fibres and Human Health

✍ Scribed by Lynnette R. Ferguson; Philip J. Harris

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 264 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1613-4125
• DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.200590023

✦ Synopsis

A long tradition has associated dietary fibres (DFs) as being beneficial to human health and protective against a range of diseases that are common in the Western world, including colon cancer. However, their effects on protecting against the latter disease have been controversial since the publication in the early 2000s of some large epidemiologic studies that were interpreted as indicating that higher intakes of DFs did not protect against colon cancer. We have previously challenged such an interpretation, and have suggested that part of the problem is that the term "dietary fibre"encompasses such a large and heterogenous groups of material that one would not expect them all to protect against diseases such as cancer. This special issue comprises a snapshot view of some current thinking on DFs, their potential use in industry, and their role in protection against human disease.