Abstract
In the early days of nutritional science, dietary fiber did not attract attention because it was considered to have no nutritional value. Later, however, it was found that dietary fiber had both nutritional and physiological effects that ordinary nutrients lacked, and was an indispensable food ingredient for maintenance of health. Currently, there is still no general consensus on the definition and classification of dietary fiber, or on the optimal method for analyzing it. In the course of research on analysis of dietary fiber, it became clear that one type of starch is not digested in the small intestine, and this is now known as resistant starch. Resistant starch was shown to have the same nutritional and physiological effects as dietary fiber, which are influenced by physical and chemical properties such as viscosity and bulking effects. Dietary fiber and resistant starch are now being applied to the development of foods for prevention of lifestyle-related diseases.
