Translations:Dietary fiber/67/en

In this definition, "edible parts of plants" indicates that some parts of a plant that are eaten—skin, pulp, seeds, stems, leaves, roots—contain fiber. Both insoluble and soluble sources are in those plant components. "Carbohydrates" refers to complex carbohydrates, such as long-chained sugars also called starch, oligo saccharides, or poly saccharides, which are sources of soluble fermentable fiber. "Resistant to digestion and absorption in the human small intestine" refers to compounds that are not digested by gastric acid and digestive enzymes in the stomach and small intestine, preventing the digesting animal from utilizing the compounds for energy. A food resistant to this process is undigested, as insoluble and soluble fibers are. They pass to the large intestine only affected by their absorption of water (insoluble fiber) or dissolution in water (soluble fiber). "Complete or partial fermentation in the large intestine" describes the digestive processes of the large intestine, which comprises a segment called the colon within which additional nutrient absorption occurs through the process of fermentation. Fermentation occurs through the action of colonic bacteria on the food mass, producing gases and short-chain fatty acids. These short-chain fatty acids have been shown to have significant health properties. They include butyric, acetic (ethanoic), propionic, and valeric acids.