Abstract
Dietary fiber is widely accepted as an important part of healthy human nutrition. There is, however, controversy over the use of fiber in artificial enteral nutrition, although fiber-enriched formula diets are marketed in the United States and in Europe [1, 2]. The term dietary fiber comprises a heterogeneous group of polysaccharides (non-starch polysaccharides, NSPs) and lignin (a polyphenol) with varying physicochemical properties. An important feature of NSPs is their fermentability by colonic anaerobic bacteria [3, 4]. The principal end products of bacterial fiber degradation are short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), of which acetate, propionate, and n-butyrate are most important quantitatively. SCFAs are the predominant anions in the colonic lumen and are thought to have a major impact on luminal and mucosal metabolism. If the addition of fiber to liquid formula diets is beneficial to the patient, it is probably by offering fermentable substrates to the colonic microflora, resulting in SCFA production.
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