Getting fibre into British diets will take teamwork and guts

British adults eat just 18g of dietary fibre daily, far below the recommended 30g, putting millions at risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer.

The new review article, led by the University of Reading and published in a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, reveals that current fibre intake across all UK age groups falls considerably short of dietary guidelines, with children consuming 3-9g less than the daily recommended intakes, whilst adults face a 12-14g deficit.

"We urgently need effective strategies to increase dietary fibre intake across the UK population," said Professor Julie Lovegrove, lead author from the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition at the University of Reading. 

"Our review shows that higher intakes of dietary fibre, particularly from cereals and wholegrains, are associated with a significantly lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. This is an urgent public health challenge that will require a joint effort from policymakers, food producers and others to make a difference - an approach shown to be successful in Denmark."

The paper reported cereal-based products as the largest source of fibre in UK diets (41%), followed by vegetables and potatoes (28%). As a food group, pulses are the greatest contributor to daily fibre intakes, but are only eaten by one in three of the population, with baked beans the most popular. Despite white bread being low in fibre, more than 83% of UK households buy this daily, making it an important contributor to overall fibre intakes.

The researchers identified some key strategies for boosting British fibre intakes:

• Food labelling: implementing front-of-pack traffic light systems and clear fibre content identification
• Nutritional education: addressing misconceptions and increasing awareness of the 30g daily fibre target
• Food reformulation: increasing fibre content of familiar staple foods by replacing low fibre with high fibre ingredients
• Biofortification: developing wheat varieties with naturally higher fibre content
• Policy interventions: following successful model of the Danish Wholegrain Partnership, which increased the fibre content in a popular rye bread to increase population intakes
• Supply chains: ensuring sustainable availability of fibre-rich ingredients.

Innovative UK projects already underway were highlighted, including the University of Reading-led 'Raising the Pulse' project, which combines wheat flour with nutrient-rich flours made from pulses, and 'Hi-Fi Bread', focused on developing high-fibre wheat cultivars through traditional breeding methods.

The researchers concluded that success requires coordinated action across the entire food system, from farmers and food manufacturers to government policymakers and consumers. It calls for "transformation of the UK food system to ensure sustainable availability of palatable, affordable, fibre-rich foods, ideally accompanied by individual motivation for dietary change."

IMAGE: formulatehealth, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reference:

Lovegrove Julie A., Jackson Kim G., Kaimila Yankho, Lignou Stella, Lovegrove Alison, Norton Victoria, O'Sullivan Donal M., Shewry Peter, Tosi Paola and Tindall Marcus J. (2025) Importance of dietary fibre, strategies for increasing intake and maintenance of the supply chain in the UK. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 380:20240148.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0148