Acceptance of increased daily dietary fibre in healthy participants: A preliminary feasibility study to inform a larger RCT to test the efficacy of barley on body composition and weight loss.

We investigated how three weeks of increased fibre intake would affect appetite and satiety (feelings of hunger and fullness), and gastrointestinal comfort. Our results suggest that three weeks of increased fibre intake (a) does not affect appetite or satiety, and (b) increases the frequency of breaking or passing wind and increases stool consistency. Additionally, the baseline fibre consumption and the method of increased fibre increase (i.e., gradual increase or immediate increase) did not change the feelings of hunger and fullness. The results also indicated that the increase of additional fibre was perceived as being beneficial to overall wellbeing, influenced feelings of hunger and caused some minor short term gastrointestinal symptoms that disappeared after getting used to the product. The findings of this study further confirm that increasing fibre intake is a safe intervention that presents no additional risks over typical increased dietary fibre intake. Ultimately, we will use the feedback gathered from participants of this study and use it to help inform the methods for our next study which will use the same supplements and investigate its effect on weight loss and markers of health.