characteristics of dietary fiber
112 / MARCH 2001, VOL. 46, NO. 3 The Definition of Dietary Fiber 1 âDietary fiber is the edible parts of plants or analogous carbohydrates that are resistant to digestion and ab-sorption in the human small intestine with complete or partial fermentation in the large intestine.ll nondigestible, fermentable polysaccharides, whether they are polyglucoses such as cellulose or beta-glucans, or polyfructoses such as inulin, or het-eropolymers such as arabinoxylans and arabinogalactans, or analo-gous carbohydrates, are included in the definition of dietary fiber.