ViewpointFibre-supplemented foods may damage your health
Section snippets
What is fibre?
The complexity of dietary “fibre” is highlighted by the lack of a universally acceptable scientific definition, reflected also in disagreement on the methodology of its quantification in our food. The term “dietary fibre” was originally applied to ingested plant cell-wall remnants (roughage), but the definition can also be expanded to include any non-starch polysaccharide or even protein not degraded by endogenous mammalian secretions. These substrates can be fermented by bacteria in the
Cell proliferation and cancer
Cell division in the gastrointestinal tract is the largest and second-fastest cell-renewal system in the body. Stem cells at the base of each crypt give rise to all the other cells in the epithelium. Although rates of colonic crypt-cell proliferation are less than half those in the small intestine, there is more intracolonic variation in cell turn-over than in the small bowel, which may reflect local trophic influences, including dietary constituents, and provides some clues to the
Fibre and cell proliferation
Many carbohydrates can stimulate epithelial-cell proliferation throughout the gastrointestinal tract, and distal atrophy associated with fibre-free diets can be reversed by the addition of dietary fibre. These actions were originally attributed to the mechanical properties of dietary bulk, but it is now known that cell division in the large bowel mucosa is mainly stimulated by SCFAs produced by bacterial fermentation.8 There is no proliferative response to fermentable fibre in the colon of
Conclusions
The presence of nutrients in the intestinal lumen influences epithelial proliferation, and fermentable fibre substrates can stimulate proliferation in the colon. The overall significance of this is unclear, but in view of the general lack of benefit in experimental human studies and the detrimental effects seen in animal models of carcinogenesis, caution in the use of nutritional fibre supplements is advisable. Until individual constituents of fibre have been shown to have, at the very least, a
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Cited by (53)
Hypothesis: Mechanism of irritable bowel syndrome in inflammatory bowel disease
2019, Medical HypothesesCitation Excerpt :An IBS mouse model dosed with fructo-oligosaccharide for 14 days enhanced visceral hypersensitivity and intestinal inflammation [112]. In 1996, Wasan and Goodlad described the carcinogenicity of fermentable dietary fiber [113]. In 2018, the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) due to long-term administration of inulin was confirmed in animal experiments by Singh et al. [114].
Fiber can make your gut grow
2007, NutritionNew approaches to the role of diet in the prevention of cancers of the alimentary tract
2004, Mutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of MutagenesisResistant starch and "the butyrate revolution"
2002, Trends in Food Science and TechnologyResistant starch supplementation increases crypt cell proliferative state in the rectal mucosa of older healthy participants
2020, British Journal of Nutrition