The physiological effects of cellulose in the human large intestine

Abstract

A diet high in coarse vegetables, fruits and whole grain cereals will generally yield a residue sufficiently bulky to be effective in preventing constipation. But with the modern tendency for the average person to make up a high percentage of his diet of meat, potatoes, white bread, and pastries, constipation has a wide prevalence, and the use of more concentrated roughage materials has been resorted to for the benefit of obstinate cases or for those persons who do not incline toward using a natural roughage diet. With this introduction, Frey et al. (1928) published a study of Dietetic investigations of edible pure cellulose. They described a series of studies where they tested the effects of an edible obtained from the hull of rice grain on gastrointestinal function in human and animal subjects. From the results of their experiments, they recommended their product as a more palatable, yet equally effective, source of roughage than bran, the then accepted supplement to the diet to prevent constipation. Sixty years on, is still considered a potential additive for food products in order to increase their dietary fiber content and for many years the word cellulose was often considered an equivalent term for roughage or fiber. Indeed, it was only in 1982 that Dietary Fiber became a medical heading in Index Medicus; before that time all literature pertaining to fiber was to be found under the heading Cellulose.