I have read that dietary fiber is beneficial to human health in many ways, for example that it can help to reduce risk of colorectal cancer. However, when I look at nutrition labels on food it seems that only plant based food contains fiber; animal based food (meat) contains none.
What exactly is meant by fiber? I looked it up and found that there are actually a variety of definitions. The CODEX Alimentarius Commission has recently come up with an updated definition described in a paper by Jones. The definition states that “dietary fiber means carbohydrate (CHO) polymers with ten or more monomeric units, which are not hydrolyzed by the endogenous enzymes in the small intestine (SI) of humans”. Further more their definition "includes resistant oligosaccharides, resistant starch and resistant maltodextrins" when a footnote of the definition is included.
Jones points out that some definitions of dietary fiber do not explicitly rule out dietary fiber from animal sources. So does meat or animal based food contain any carbohydrate (CHO) polymers that are not hydrolyzed by the endogenous enzymes of the small intestine in humans?
An earlier version of this question was posted in my blog.