AT more fibre. This single health message has been drummed into us like no other. Breakfast cereal and bread manufacturers have built empires on the premise that fibre, all fibre, is good for you and can prevent cancer.
Well, as you munch your wheatbran enriched muesli, guess what? It may not be true. Doctors at the Cancer Genetics Laboratory of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London have been asking whether all fibre is good for you.
The best evidence for the benefits of dietary fibre come from studies showing that people whose diets are rich in fibre from eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables have lower rates of heart disease and certain cancers, including cancer of the breast, colon and rectum. Many researchers have concluded from these findings that fibre eaten alone without the other nutrients in fruits and vegetables can have the same beneficial effect.
But researchers at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund claim that "studies in human beings have failed to show a reduction in risk due to fibre itself".
Their advice is to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in your diet and decrease the amount of fat. And they urge restraint in adding fibre supplements to foods, since they do no good and could possibly do harm.