Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T18:16:48.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The effect of age, sex and level of intake of dietary fibre from wheat on large-bowel function in thirty healthy subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Alison M. Stephen
Affiliation:
MRC Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, 100 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 IQL
H. S. Wiggins
Affiliation:
MRC Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, 100 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 IQL
H. N. Englyst
Affiliation:
MRC Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, 100 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 IQL
T. J. Cole
Affiliation:
Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1XJ
B. J. Wayman
Affiliation:
Dalgety-Spillers Research and Technology Centre, Bury Road, Kennett, Newmarket, Suffolk
J. H. Cummings
Affiliation:
MRC Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, 100 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 IQL
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

1. To evaluate the effect of age, sex and level of intake on the colonic response to wheat fibre, thirty healthy volunteers aged 17–62 years (nineteen men, eleven women) recruited from a local industry, were divided into four groups and given a controlled diet for two 3-week periods. The diet contained white bread during one period or one of four different amounts of bran-enriched wholemeal bread during the other (30, 60, 110, 170 g/d).

2. Wide variation was observed between subjects in stool weight on the basal diet and in response to wheat fibre. Stepwise regression analysis showed that the variation in stool weight was significantly related to sex (t4.0, P <0.001) but not to age, height, weight or energy:fibre intakes on the basal diet. Stool weight in men (162(SE 11) g/d) was approximately double that in women (83(SE 11) g/d). Transit time and stool weight were closely related and the effect of sex on stool weight could be explained entirely by differences in transit.

4. Faecal carbohydrate excretion increased with the addition of bran mainly due to increased amounts of cellulose and pentose (arabinose+xylose), whilst digestibility of dietary non-starch polysaccharide fell from 77.6 (SE 2.3)% on the white bread diet to 65.6 (SE 2.4)% with the added bran (t 7.4, P < 0.01, n26).

5. Faecal pH was more acid in men than in women and was related to methane production. Methane producers had higher faecal pH than non-producers (7.06 (SE 0.1 1) v. 6.65 (SE O.1)), lower stool weight (g/d; 93 (SE 12) v. 156 (SE 13)) and slower transit times (h; 84.6 (SE 11.7) v. 48.6 (SE 6.6)).

6. These studies show that, when on similar diets, women have much lower stool weights and slower transit times than men. Furthermore, within the range of amounts of wheat fibre used in this and other published work, stool weight increases in linear proportion to the dose of fibre added to the diet. Methane excretion in breath is associated in this group of subjects with slow transit time and high faecal pH.

Type
Papers of direct relevance to Clinical and Human Nutrition
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1986

References

REFERENCES

Andersson, H., Nävert, B., Bingham, S. A., Englyst, H. N. & Cummings, J. H. (1983). British Journal of Nutrition 50, 503510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bingham, S. A., Williams, D. R. R., & Cummings, J. H. (1985). British Journal of Cancer 52, 399402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, W. J. & Cummings, J. H., (1978). Gut 19, 371376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brittain, G. D., Sullivan, J. E. & Schewe, L. R. (1971). In Recent Advances in Gas Chromatography, pp. 223229 [Domsky, I and Perry, E. S., editors]. New York: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Brobst, K. M. & Lott, C. E. Jr (1966). Cereal Chemistry 43, 3543.Google Scholar
Burkitt, D. P., Walker, A. R. P. & Painter, N. S. (1972). Lancet ii, 14081412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burstein, M., Scholnick, H. R. & Morfin, R. (1970). Journal of Lipid Research 11, 583595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, A. M., Hilton, C., Irvine, G., Lennard-Jones, J. E. & Misiewicz, J. J. (1965). British Medical Journal ii, 10951099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H. (1978). Journal of Plant Foods 3, 8395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H. (1982). In Dietary Fiber in Health and Disease, pp. 922 [Vahouny, G. V. and Kritchevsky, D., editors]. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H., Hill, M. J., Jenkins, D. J. A., Pearson, J. R. & Wiggins, H. S. (1976 a). American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 29, 14681473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H., Hill, M. J., Jivraj, T., Houston, H., Branch, W. J. & Jenkins, D. J. A. (1979). American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 32, 20862093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H., Jenkins, D. J. A. & Wiggins, H. S. (1976 b). Gut 17, 210218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. H., Southgate, D. A. T., Branch, W., Houston, H., Jenkins, D. J. A. & James, W. P. T. (1978 a). Lancet i, 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J. H., Wiggins, H. S., Jenkins, D. J. A., Houston, H., Jivraj, T., Drasar, B. S. & Hill, M. J. (1978 b). Journal of Clinical Investigation 61, 953963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durnin, J. V. G. A. & Womersley, J. (1974). British Journal of Nutrition 32, 7797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastwood, M. A., Brydon, W. G. & Tadesse, K. (1980). In Medical Aspects of Dietary Fiber, pp. 126Spiller, G. A. and Kay, R. M., editors]. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Englyst, H., Wiggins, H. S. & Cummings, J. H. (1982). Analyst 107, 307318.Google Scholar
Gear, J. S. S. (1979). Epidemiological studies of the role of dietary fibre in the aetiology of disease. PhD Thesis, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Klass, D. L. (1984). Science 223, 10211028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCance, R. A. & Walsham, C. M. (1948). British Journal of Nutrition 2, 2641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMichael, A. J. & Potter, J. D. (1980). Journal of the National Cancer Institute 65, 12011207.Google Scholar
McMichael, A. J. & Potter, J. D. (1982). Lancet i, 11901191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macrae, T. F., Hutchinson, J. C. D., Irwin, J. O., Bacon, J. S. D. & McDougall, E. I. (1942). Journal of Hygiene 42, 423435.Google Scholar
Paul, A. A. & Southgate, D. A. T. (1978). McCance & Widdowson's The Composition of Foods. London: H.M. Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Payler, D. K., Pomare, E. W., Heaton, K. W. & Harvey, R. F. (1975). Gut 16, 209213CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roe, J. H. (1955). Journal of Biological Chemistry 212, 335343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roschlau, v. P., Bernt, E. & Gruber, W. (1974). Zeitschrift für Klinische Chemie: Klinische Biochemie 12, 403407.Google Scholar
Royal College of General Practitioners (1979). Morbidity Statistics from General Practice 1971–1972. 2nd National Study. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects no. 36. London: H. M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Royal College of Physicians (1980). Medical Aspects of Dietary Fibre. London: Pitman Medical.Google Scholar
Southgate, D. A. T, (1976). In Fiber in Human Nutrition, pp. 73107 [Spiler, G. A. and Amen, R. J., editors ]. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southgate, D. A. T., Branch, W. J., Hill, M. J., Drasar, B. S., Walters, R. L., Davies, P. S. & Baird, I. M. (1976). Metabolism 25, 11291135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, A. M. (1980). Dietary fibre and human colonic function. PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Stephen, A. M. & Cummings, J. H. (1980). Nature 284, 283–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Kampen, E. J. & Zijlstra, W. G. (1961). Clinica Chimica Acta 6, 538544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahlefeld, A. W. (1974). In Methods of Enzymatic Analysis, 2nd English ed (translated from 3rd German ed), pp. 18311839 [Bergmeyer, H. U., editor]. New York and London: Verlag Chemie Weinheim and Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. R. P., Walker, B. F. & Segal, I. (1979). South African Medical Journal 55, 495498.Google Scholar
Wootton, I. D. P. (1974). In Microanalysis in Medical Biochemistry, 5th ed., pp. 218220. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1973). Energy and Protein Requirements. Report of Joint FAO/WHO Ad Hoc Expert Committee. Technical Report Series no. 522. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar