An Introduction to the Dietary Fibre Hypothesis

Abstract

Although there are many references in the medical and popular literature since the time of Hippocrates to the benefits of consuming unrefined foods, in its current form the ‘dietary fibre hypothesis’ stems from the writings and lecturing of two medical men, Mr Denis Burkitt and Dr Hugh Trowell, in the early 1970s (Burkitt & Trowell, 1975). These two men had both worked in East Africa for a large part of their professional careers and had been intrigued by the differences in the pattern of diseases they saw compared with the Western communities where they had been trained. Trowell was especially interested in the ‘metabolic’ diseases, obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease, whereas Burkitt, as a surgeon, was particularly interested in large bowel diseases and especially large bowel cancer. Both men had been influenced by earlier workers, especially ARP Walker working in Southern Africa, and in the popular writing of Surgeon Commander P Cleave who had developed the concept of the ‘saccharine diseases’ based on the consumption of excessive refined sugars.