For good health, we need to eat both types of fibre. They lose none of their fibre when they are dried, frozen or canned. It makes sense to eat fruits such as apples or pears with their skin on and you don't lose all the fibre if you peel fruit. It starts by keeping the teeth and jaws healthy and continues down the intestine, helping the body function the way nature intended. Most Australians eat about half as much fibre as nutritionists recommend.
Most people know that a lack of fibre is related to constipation.
But fibre can do much more. In countries where the diet is high in fibre, conditions such as bowel cancer, diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome, overweight, diabetes and heart disease are rare. Foods which contain fibre are mostly low in fat. Conversely the fatty foods which dominate the diet of many Australians have very little fibre. At this stage, we do not know if it is the presence of fibre, or the fact that high fibre foods are eaten instead of fatty foods which is most important.