Although dietary guidelines concerning carbohydrate intake for athletes are well established, these do not include recommendations for daily fibre intake. However, there are many scenarios in sports nutrition in which common practice involves the manipulation of fibre intake to address gastrointestinal comfort around exercise, or acute or chronic goals around the management of body mass or composition. The effect of fibre intake in overall health is also important, particularly in combination with other dietary considerations such as the elevated protein requirements in this population. An athlete’s habitual intake of dietary fibre should be assessed. If less than 20 g a day, athletes may consider dietary interventions to gradually increase intake. It is proposed that a ramp phase is adopted to gradually increase fibre ingestion to ~ 30 g of fibre a day (which includes ~ 2 g of beta-glucan) over a duration of 6 weeks. The outcomes of achieving a daily fibre intake are to help preserve athlete gut microbiome diversity and stability, intestinal barrier function as well as the downstream effects of short-chain fatty acids produced following the fermentation of microbiome accessible carbohydrates. Nevertheless, there are scenarios in which daily manipulation of fibre intake, either to reduce or increase intake, may be valuable in assisting the athlete to maintain gastrointestinal comfort during exercise or to contribute to body mass/composition goals. Although further research is required, the aim of this current opinion paper is to ensure that fibre is not forgotten as a nutrient in the athlete’s diet.

尽管关于运动员碳水化合物摄入量的饮食指南已经很成熟，但这些指南并不包括每日纤维摄入量的建议。然而，在运动营养学中，在许多情况下，常见的做法涉及控制纤维摄入量以解决运动时的胃肠道舒适度，或围绕体重或成分管理的急性或慢性目标。纤维摄入量对整体健康的影响也很重要，特别是与其他饮食考虑因素相结合，例如该人群的蛋白质需求增加。应评估运动员对膳食纤维的习惯摄入量。如果每天少于 20 克，运动员可以考虑饮食干预以逐渐增加摄入量。建议采用斜坡阶段，在 6 周内逐渐将纤维摄入量增加到每天 ~ 30 克纤维（包括 ~ 2 克 β-葡聚糖）。实现每日纤维摄入量的结果有助于保持运动员肠道微生物组的多样性和稳定性、肠道屏障功能以及微生物组可及碳水化合物发酵后产生的短链脂肪酸的下游影响。然而，在某些情况下，每天控制纤维摄入量，无论是减少还是增加摄入量，对于帮助运动员在运动期间保持胃肠道舒适或有助于实现体重/成分目标可能很有价值。尽管需要进一步的研究，但当前这篇观点论文的目的是确保纤维作为运动员饮食中的营养物质不会被遗忘。