Dietary fibre comes from a variety of foods of plant origin such as grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. The dietary fibre component forms the structure of all these plants. If you imagine the ‘fibrous ness’ of plants then you can get a clear picture of the fibre component, right? Dietary fibres are refered to as non-starch polysaccharides and what sets them apart is their resistance to digestive enzymes in the small intestine, much of the fibre passes through the small intestine to fermentation, digestion, and utilisation in the large intestine. Non-starch polysaccharides include cellulose, hemicellulose, pectins, gums and mucilages.
There are predominantly two types of dietary fibre, soluble and insoluble