Dietary fibre intake, disease prevention, and health promotion: An overview with emphasis on evidence from epidemiology

Dietary fibre intakes vary around the world with higher intakes occurring in some countries in northern Europe than in Southern Europe or the USA. Males generally ingest more fibre but females have a more fibre dense diet per calorie. Well educated subjects in Western populations tend to eat more fibre. While in developing countries, those who eat traditional diets or live in rural areas tend to have higher fibre intakes than those who have more to urban areas and have adopted a Western eating pattern. While recommendations around the world vary, there is agreement that populations fail to meet the recommended levels. In most countries, New Zealand being the exception, the trend is for the population intakes to go down rather than to increase. This occurs despite an increase in the recommendations by a number of government and health promotion organizations and compelling epidemiological data that dietary fibre reduces the risk of chronic disease including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer. Further research is needed to determine the actual impacts of dietary fibre and the interaction of dietary fibre with the food components in the diet and to sort out the confounding that those who have other good health habits also eat more dietary fibre.