Dietary fibre: eating habits and knowledge in different regions of the globe

Abstract

Dietary fibre (DF) is an important component in a healthy diet and its consumption constitutes one tool that can be used to lower risk factors for many diseases. Because DF has so many health benefits, this study aimed at comparing the eating habits and attitudes towards labelling as well as the knowledge about fibre rich foods and their health effects in three countries situated in different parts of the globe (Argentina, Portugal and Hungary). For that, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on a convenience non-probabilistic sample of 1525 participants, by questionnaire survey. The results showed that the ingestion of DF was below the recommended dosages in the three countries, and people in general do not care much about the nutritional information in the food labels or the contents in DF. Internet appeared as a very important media that people use to get information about DF or healthy eating, while hospitals and health centre seem to fail somewhat on their educational role. Finally, in general, the respondents showed a moderate level of knowledge about the nature and sources of DF but a better knowledge about its effects on human health, being this similar among the countries at study.

Keywords

• Dietary fibre
• eating habits
• fibre rich foods
• questionnaire survey
• sources of fibre