Evolutionary perspective on dietary intake of fibre and colorectal cancer

From an evolutionary perspective, the ongoing discussion of fibres role in colorectal cancer is possibly limited by the overall low intake of fibre across study groups. Our ancestral diet consistently included a diverse range of plants that regularly contributed up to and often >100 g/day of dietary fibre. Importantly, this diversity assured that, owing to a range of physical and chemical structures, a steady flow of fermentable substrates promoted metabolic activity into the distal regions of the colon.