Nutrition Research Reviews (2018), 31,1–15 Doi:10.1017/S0954422417000117 © the Author(S) 2017
Nutrition Research Reviews (2018), 31,1–15 doi:10.1017/S0954422417000117 © The Author(s) 2017. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Denis Burkitt and the origins of the dietary fibre hypothesis John H. Cummings1* and Amanda Engineer2 1Jacqui Wood Cancer Centre, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY, UK 2Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK Abstract For more than 200 years the fibre in plant foods has been known by animal nutritionists to have significant effects on digestion. Its role in human nutrition began to be investigated towards the end of the 19th century. However, between 1966 and 1972, Denis Burkitt, a surgeon who had recently returned from Africa, brought together ideas from a range of disciplines together with observations from his own experience to propose a radical view of the role of fibre in human health. Burkitt came late to the fibre story but built on the work of three physicians (Peter Cleave, G. D. Campbell and Hugh Trowell), a surgeon (Neil Painter) and a biochemist (Alec Walker) to propose that diets low in fibre increase the risk of CHD, obesity, diabetes, dental caries, various vascular disorders and large bowel conditions such as cancer, appendicitis and diverticulosis. Simply grouping these diseases together as having a common cause was groundbreaking. Proposing fibre as the key stimulated much research but also controversy.
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