History of dietary fiber

The consumption of fiber over millennia has been studied using coprolites, which are ancient dried stools, some dating back 10,000 years.

The result revealed the high-fiber intake of ancient people and the tremendous decline in fiber intake over the centuries.

In 430 BC, Hippocrates compared the superior laxative effects of coarse wheat and refined wheat. He stressed the value of wholegrain flour to help keep the bowel healthy. In the ninth century AD, a Persian physician named Hakim taught the value of fiber-rich foods for healthy bowel function.

In 1920 McCance and Lawrence are instrumental in developing the concept of unavailable carbohydrate. This was a stepping stone to the modern concept do dietary fiber – plant substances not digested by human digestive enzymes.

Between 1939 and 1945, during World War II, when flour in England was either unrefined or less refined there was a decline in the death rate from major disease such as heart disease.

The term dietary fiber was first coined in 1953 by Hispley to describe cell wall components of foods. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the fiber hypothesis was born. Denis P. Burkitt a British Surgeon known as The Fiber Man and famous for his research on dietary fiber published ‘Diverticular Disease of the Colon, A deficiency of Western Civilization’ in British Medical Journal.

Denis Burkitt is credited with bringing to the attention of the Western world the need for dietary fiber to reduce gastrointestinal disease. He popularized the idea that the dietary fiber may protect against the development of Western disease including diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease, diverticular disease and cancer.

In 1977, Trowell testified on the relations between fiber, diet, and disease at the McGovern hearings in the United States Senate. In 1978, the first symposium on fiber in nutrition was held at the International Congress of Nutrition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
History of dietary fiber