Welcome to Defining Dietary
Fiber, your on-line guide to the
collaborative efforts to redefine the term "dietary fiber". Brought
to you by the AACC International, this site
provides both a chronology of fiber
definition and an overview of the 1999 events to explore further changes to the
current definition of fiber.
Most people are aware of the role dietary
fiber plays in human health and disease. But not all are aware of the
complexities of defining the term itself. Is "dietary fiber"
simply a food compound isolated in the laboratory via an established analytical
method? Or should dietary fiber be defined in part by its role in human
digestion? How are we to refer to other natural or man-made components with
features similar— but not identical to— those of compounds that currently meet
our definition of dietary fiber? And how might a revised definition of
"dietary fiber" affect efforts to define the increasingly popular
term "functional foods"? The answers to these questions will play an
important role in the development, labeling, and marketing of healthy foods in
the new millennium.
The AACC International Committee to Define Dietary Fiber welcomes your contributions to this ongoing issue. If you would like additional information or if you have suggestions for this site, please email us at: aacc@scisoc.org.
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