The history of dietary fiber dates back to ancient Greece where it was known that bran cereals helped to prevent constipation. In the 1930s, J. H. Kellogg confirmed the positive effects of wheat bran on patients suffering with colitis and constipation.
It is generally believed that Dr. Eben Hipsley in 1953 was the first to use “dietary fiber” as a shorthand term for the nondigestible constituents that make up the plant cell wall. These constituents were known to include cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
He coined the phrase “dietary fiber” in an article on pregnancy toxaemia. In 1953, he observed that people with diets high in fiber-rich foods tended to have lower pregnancy toxemia levels.
Previously the analytical term ‘‘crude fiber’’ had been used to the portion of plant foods that escaped solvent, acid and alkali extractions. ‘‘Dietary fiber’’ was first postulated to be ‘‘unavailable’’ plant material (i.e., that which escaped digestion and absorption in the human upper GI tract.
Eben Hipsley first to define dietary fiber
