Should you eat more dietary fiber? New study says it depends

Nutritionists commonly recommend eating more fiber, but a new study from Cornell University suggests that fiber’s impact on health may vary from person to person, highlighting the need to tailor recommendations to each person’s gut microbiome.

the studypublished in Intestinal bacteriafocused on resistant starch, a type of dietary fiber found in foods such as bread, cereals, green bananas, whole-grain pasta, brown rice and potatoes.

The researchers identified the types of gut bacteria that change in response to two types of resistant starch. They found evidence that different people respond differently to resistant starch consumption, with some benefiting and others experiencing little or no effect. The reason for this appears to be related to the level of diversity and composition of a person’s gut microbiome.

“Precision nutrition can definitely help us determine what kind of fiber we should encourage people to consume,” said Angela Poole, assistant professor of molecular nutrition and lead author of the study.

“This is very important because for decades there has been public messaging to eat more fiber,” Poole says, “but less than 10 percent of people get the recommended intake. There are many different types of fiber and carbohydrates, so a better strategy would be to collect data on each person and tell them which fiber to eat to get the most benefit.”

In the study, Poole and his colleagues tested three diets over a seven-week period in 59 participants.