Dietary fibre: the all round healthy ingredient

摘要

Dietary guidelines recommend the consumption of a diet which is high in fibre as well as low in fat, sugars and salt. Recommendations for dietary fibre consumption vary throughout the world. The recommended intake for adults in the UK is at least 18 grams of fibre per day, based on the Englyst 'non-starch polysaccharide' analysis. This figure is used as the UK Dietary Reference Value (DRV). While the typical worldwide recommendation is to consume >25 grams of fibre a day and the UK food industry often uses Guideline Daily Amounts (CDA) of 24g of fibre a day, both based on AOAC methodology. Although people know that they should be consuming a fibre rich diet, many people are still not reaching these targets. According to the British Nutrition Foundation, the average UK intake of fibre is 12 grams per day, which is below both UK and worldwide recommendations. Some studies have shown that 30 grams or more may be beneficial to gut health.