There are a number of reasons for this poor fibre intake, including the uptake of gluten-free, wheat-free, and grain-free diets which limit or eliminate fibre-rich grains from the diet and beliefs that high fibre foods are expensive, unpalatable, and complicated to prepare3.
In the US for example, despite recommendations that adult women consume 25g fibre per day and men consume 38g fibre per day1, 95% of Americans eat less than this2 and the average fibre intake is just 16g fibre per day2. While too much fibre may increase symptoms for people with IBS, for most people, the problem is eating too little fibre.
