ABSTRACT
Until the mid 1970s, all data concerning the žber content of food were expressed in terms of crude žber. Crude žber is a chemist’s concept and refers to what is left after a treatment with boiling sulfuric acid, strong alkali, water, and alcohol. This obviously has little to do with human nutrition. In this procedure, some of the žber components are dissolved and are not included in the žnal measurements. Hence, žber levels based on crude žber determinations are misleadingly low. Fiber is often referred to as unavailable carbohydrate, but it is neither strictly unavailable nor entirely carbohydrate. Currently, the term dietary žber is used as a generic term that includes those plant constituents that are resistant to digestion by secretions of the human gastrointestinal tract.7,12 Therefore, dietary žber does not have a dežned composition but varies with the type of foodstuff and the makeup of the diet. In 1984, the new ofžcial žber determination method was accepted by the Association of Analytical Chemists and recognized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).8
