Fibre

Winners Explained

 

SC Quality Benchmark for Fibre   Although the provision of any additional fibre to a person with inadequate intake is of some benefit, the opinion of the expert panel is that for a fibre supplement to have merit the recommended dose must be meaningful and is benchmarked here at a minimum of 5g per day (20% of the guideline recommended intake). Provision of this minimum over the long term is likely to deliver a significant level of benefit associated with increased fibre intake. Additional merit is given to products presented in an easy to use form such as a water soluble powder that can be either aken directly or added to foods and drinks.

 

Fibre is a major component of our diet, but the average daily intake of adults in the U.K is only about 12g per day compared to the recommended intake of 24g/day. ( British Nutrition Foundation)

One convenient way of bridging this gap is to supplement the diet with ‘soluble’ fibre which can be dissolved into tea, and coffee or any cold drinks, or used in cooking.  

Most products reviewed below are of this type. This type of fibre is often now also referred to as ´prebiotic´ as it stimulates the growth in the intestiine of the friendly bacteria contained in ´probiotic products. 

 

 

 

Quality

The quality of the products in this category with respect to provision of the SC benchmark minimum daily intake of 5g of fibre was variable with 4 out of the 6 products assessed meeting this requirement: Aloe Vera Liquid Fibre ( Optima), Fibre Sure Powder ( Proctor and Gamble), Benefiber powder ( Novartis ), and Fibresweet ( Aliment). The last three are powdered products and all represent very good ways of increasing fibre intake. Fibresweet ( Aliment) has added sweetener, which enables it to be used as a replacement for sugar.

The Liquid Fibre product from Optima is mixed into aloe vera juice. 

Value range

The cost per gram of fibre of the products assessed here was between £0.05 and £0.18.