This encouraged researchers to look at other roles that dietary fiber might play in health. (Illustration by GGS Information Services/Thomson Gale.). Observations likeĬommon diets based on eating a diet low in carbohydrates and an increased consumption of proteins and fats. They found, for example, that native Africans who ate a high-fiber, plant-based diet are rarely bothered by constipation However, in industrialized countries where a lot of animal products are consumed, constipation is common. Over the years, researchers have compared the rate of various chronic diseases in populations that had high-fiber diets with those that had lower dietary fiber intake. No single person developed the high-fiber diet. A high-fiber diet is a diet in which the individual consumes foods that meet or exceed the dietary reference intake (DRI) for dietary fiber set by the United States Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences.
