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Introduction
There is now a long history of dietary fibre research around the world, including numerous studies showing relationships between fibre intake and health. Many countries carry out national surveys and most of these report total dietary fibre (TDF) intakes. From knowledge of the role of fibre in health and of intakes, recommendations have appeared since the 1970s to increase the intake of dietary fibre in Western countries to ultimately improve the health of their populations. Many of these have included figures for the daily amount to be consumed and many have also suggested various high-fibre foods in their dietary guidelines. However, there have been few attempts to consolidate these recommendations across Europe. Moreover, there is little further guidance beyond a total quantity of fibre to be consumed such as to specify the types of fibre or the proportions of the different fibre-containing food sources to achieve an optimum intake. This is partly because of debates about how fibre should be subdivided into categories, since these have largely been unsatisfactory. Dietary guidance in recent years has also focused on topics other than fibre, such as efforts to address obesity and CVD and/or to achieve recommended intakes of nutrients like saturated fat, sugar and salt. The stimulus for this paper was to determine the current situation about how different countries in Europe describe dietary fibre, what they recommend in terms of dietary fibre to the public, and how intakes may vary both in total amount consumed and in the sources that provide fibre to the population. From this the intent was to be able to generate more detailed guidance for European countries about not only the quantity of fibre which should be consumed, but more specifically how this might be achieved in terms of foods and fibre sources that could contribute to intakes to achieve desirable health outcomes.
The purpose of this paper is therefore to:
(1). Describe the current status of dietary fibre definitions and potential subclassifications by which more detailed advice could be given to the public;
(2). Describe current dietary recommendations and guidelines in Europe which include fibre and to investigate how these vary both in recommended intake and in sources from which...