Dietary fibre intake among different groups ofpatients as compared to recommendations
*Corresponding author
1. Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Department of Dietetics, Nowoursynowska Street 159C, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
2. The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Section of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Abstract
Dietary fibre provides many health benefits, including reducing risk of the development of coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stroke and some gastrointestinal disorders. The purpose of this study was to analyse the intake of dietary fibre among different groups of patients and to compare it to the recommended value. The study population consists of 1056 ambulatory patients provided by dieticians from Department of Dietetics from Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Very low intake of dietary fibre was found among haemodialysis patients (13.1±5.3), and those with celiac disease (16.0±5.2), and with dyspepsia (18.5±6.7). Unexpectedly high intake of dietary fibre was observed in patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis (24.6±8.1). Diet of pregnant women with gestational diabetes contained on average 20 g of dietary fibre per day and 16 g/1000 kcal. Education of the general population as well as individual counselling for patients concerning dietary fibre is necessary to realize an adequate intake of this macronutrient.
INTRODUCTION
Lifestyle modification including dietary changes and increase of physical activity are important part of non-pharmacological treatment of several diseases. One of the main change in regular diet, recommended to general population, is to increase the intake of dietary fibre, from different sources: whole grains, vegetables and fruits. It seems so easy to do, however an average fibre intake among general population in middle and high income countries is rather low. This raises the question: why it is so difficult to achieve the recommended values of dietary fibre per day? Intake of dietary fibre among adult females aged 19-65 years in EU countries ranged from 15.7±0.2 g per day in France to 23.7±94 g per day in Portugal. For adult males, the intake varied from 18.0±7.0 g per day in Sweden to 29.5±11.4 g per day in Poland. Approximately 70% of the described intakes for adults, aged 65 years and over, were between 19 and 25 g/day (1). The Adequate Intake (AI) for dietary fibre, recommended by Institute of Medicine, is related to age, gender and energy intake. AI for adults is 14 g/1000 kcal or 25 g to 38 g for women and men, respectively. ...
