ABSTRACT
The foundation of the recognition of a relationship between diet and cardiovascular disease was the demonstration that different fats have significantly different effects on blood lipid levels. The role of dietary fiber in the modulation of blood lipid concentrations was initially explored in the 1960s. The hypothesis that fibers lower blood cholesterol levels by interfering with absorption of dietary cholesterol is attractive because of its simplicity. Most hypocholesterolemic dietary fibers are rapidly fermented and would be expected to create an acute influx of short-chain fatty acids into the blood. Carefully conducted studies that have been repeatedly confirmed have established that a fiber is hypocholesterolemic because it alters the body’s total sterol pool. Fiber is the grandparent of the current wave of interest in functional foods and food components. A higher fiber intake is a natural outgrowth of such a food intake pattern, although the proportion of soluble fiber remains about 25–35% of the total fiber.
