Ingredients for Wellness: Chitosan and Dietary fibers
The food and nutritional industries tend to "deconstruct" foods. With the aid of science, healthy constituents are found and extracted and/or purified, and then promoted as supplements for food fortification. Or, they are altered and used in pharmaceutical preparations. This is the case with vitamins and minerals and with many phytotherapeutic chemicals provided by herbs and spices.
This has extended to renewed interest in the "skeleton" structures that make up foods "the dietary fibers” as they are promoted for their various health benefits. For example, weight loss is an area for which fiber has both confirmed and purported benefits.