S. Shimbo et al., CHRONOLOGICAL CHANGES AND INTERREGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN DIETARY FIBER INTAKES AMONG MIDDLE-AGED JAPANESE WOMEN, Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine, 180(1), 1996, pp. 1-15
Dietary fiber intake was estimated by the total food duplicate method,
using a computerized system for fiber calculation recently developed
by this study group. Collection of food duplicates were conducted twic
e, once in 1979-83 and then in 1990-95, in 20 sites across Japan. Alto
gether 294 and 384 nonsmoking, nonhabitually drinking adult women offe
red the samples, in the first and second survey, respectively. The ave
rage intake of total fiber was 20.7 g/day in the first study, end it w
as 18.7 g/day in the second survey with a significant reduction. Solub
le fiber accounted for 18 to 19%, and the reduction was more marked in
soluble fiber than in insoluble fiber. There was an inter-regional di
fference in fiber intake which was more evident in the first survey th
an in the second; farmers in Okinawa took less soluble, insoluble and
total fiber than in Hokkaido and Honshu farmers and also urban residen
ts. Throughout the four groups, the leading fiber sources were vegetab
les, followed by cereals: fruits and pulse in the decreasing order. In
takes of these foods diminished during the two survey period, and the
reduction of fiber from cereals was most evident in Honshu and Okinawa
farmers. International comparison showed that the current level of fi
ber intake in Japan is essentially similar to the levels in Europe and
USA, despite the long-term trend of reduction.