Development of a Repertoire and a Food Frequency Questionnaire for Estimating Dietary Fiber Intake Considering Prebiotics: Input from the FiberTAG Project.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Tool development and cross-sectional pilot administration in a small healthy volunteer cohort
PubMed 32942686 · doi:10.3390/nu12092824
What was done
Researchers developed a food composition repertoire detailing total dietary fiber, soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, and prebiotic oligosaccharides (inulin-type fructans, fructo-oligosaccharides, and galacto-oligosaccharides) for foods consumed in Europe. They created a 12-month food frequency questionnaire based on this database and administered it to 15 healthy volunteers from the FiberTAG study.
What was found
Total dietary fiber intake in the tested population was 38 g/day. Reported prebiotic intakes reached 5 g/day for fructans and 2 g/day for fructo-oligosaccharides (linked notably to garlic and onion intake), while galacto-oligosaccharide intake was 1 g/day.
Why it matters
Standard food composition tables lack detailed estimates for fermentable prebiotic fibers that modulate the gut microbiota. This repertoire and questionnaire provide a dedicated instrument to quantify these specific fibers for microbiome and nutritional research.
Limits
The questionnaire was tested in only 15 healthy volunteers. The abstract does not report formal validation metrics, such as test-retest reliability or comparison against weighed dietary records or biomarkers.
Cited by
- supports Prebiotic fiber is derived from foods such as garlic, onions, leeks, Mexican yam, Jerusalem artichoke, and broccoli.