It seems like almost daily we read in the newspaper that Canadians aren't getting nearly enough fiber each day; it's estimated that less than 50% of adults meet the recommended 25-35g. So when food companies discover this void and start pumping fiber into their products to increase sales, no one is really surprised.
It seems that every time I step into a grocery store I see a products with the word FIBER proudly displayed on the package, some of these products were always good sources of fiber and are just a reflection of marketing during the current fiber trend, others have been reformulated to improve the amount of fiber in them and others are merely being fortified to put fiber into products which were previously devoid. And its likely only a matter of time before Canadian grocery carts are filled with many of new products already available in the United States where fortifying with fiber is not as new. Some of these products available in the U.S include Wonder Bread Whole Grain White Bread providing 4g of fiber in 2 slices of bread, fiber-fortified Mott's Plus Apple Sauce which contains 3g of fiber per serving and a fiber-rich pancake mix providing 5g of fiber from eating 3 Fiber One Pancakes . And I suppose when our nation is so clearly deprived of fiber we shouldn't be too concerned about these products right?
As long as we are encouraging fiber consumption, we should be happy...right? I was fairly convinced until I read a recent National Post Article that reported researchers based out of Leduc, Alberta are hard at work trying to figure out a way to add barley fibre to doughnuts in attempt to boost their fiber content! The research team is attempting to develop a recipe that would allow a single donut to contain 2g of fiber which as quoted by Kevin Swallow, a member of the research team is "not achievable with traditional ingredients".
The article does not disclose which national doughnut maker is a partial sponsor for the program due to "competitive reasons" but, for illustrative purposes I went to the Tim Horton's website and did some investigating into where their doughnuts stand now. Within the Canadian nutrition information I found three doughnuts listed on their website that currently contain 2g of fiber: the apple fritter, blueberry fritter and chocolate glazed donut! How this is achieved I am not sure, but doesn't it make the effort to get fiber in donuts seem a little less admirable since it has already been accomplished? It is important to note that Swallow did agree in the National Post Article that "donuts might not be the most logical product to work with given their fat content", which is only validated by the 10+ grams of fat present in the three doughnuts previously mentioned.
So what are my issues here?
First, as a nutrition student my quick answer would be that it seems silly to think getting 2g of fiber from a doughnut is good...considering that still represents less than 10% of what you need in a day, and that you could get approximately 4g of fiber (and much less fat!) from simply eating an apple a day! But my bigger concern here is the potentially negative effect that this and other similar initiatives could have!
I remember not too long ago when Tim Horton's released their Whole Grain Raspberry Muffin. There were signs all over Tim's advertizing their new product and pushing that it was whole grain. I recall a number of people telling me that they loved these new muffins and were pleased with the 'healthier' choice they were making. And while yes, it does have 5g of fiber that comes along with 400 calories, 17g of fat and 26g of sugar making it really no better than their other muffins. But sales of these new muffins must have been lucrative because not too long after came the release of their Whole Grain Blueberry Muffin.
With this in mind, I wonder what will happen when doughnut makers start pushing high fiber doughnuts? Could a misguided customer purchase 2 or even 3 thinking that they are doing the right thing by increase their fiber intake? It's because of examples like this and the use of one-sided nutrition messages that consumers are confused and the role of nutrition experts becomes that much more imporant. There are a lot of people out there who think they are making healthy choices, but are doing so without understanding the whole picture!
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