In the past 50 years or so dietary fiber has become an increasingly significant area of nutritional focus, debate, and research. Advances in food production practices have resulted in more and more refined foods being available and consumed throughout the world and particularly in developed nations such as the United States. While refined foods are typically more palatable to consumers, the content of dietary fiber is greatly reduced. Currently many diseases are believed to be associated with a lack of dietary fiber intake and furthermore significant health benefits are thought possible via increased consumption of many dietary fibers. There is not a well accepted definition for dietary fiber, but most reference the human inability to fully digest fibers, fibers being made up of various monomer units of variable length and some mention plant origin. There are many raw materials/ingredients that can increase the fiber content in foods, each with its own set of functional and sensory characteristics, include acacia gum, beta glucan, cellulose, chitin/chitosan, corn bran, corn fiber, inulin, oat Bran/oat fiber, pea fiber, pectin, polydextrose, psyllium, resistant starch, rice bran, soy fibers, wheat bran, and wheat fiber. These fibers are unique in their functional capability for treatment of number of diseases.
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