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Neutral Detergent Fiber, Hemicellulose and Cellulose Digestibility in Human Subjects^1,2,

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1300 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706

The fate of dietary fiber and its components was examined in seven women consuming low cellulose (LC) and high cellulose (HC) diets, each for about 1 month. The diets were of constant daily composition and differed only in that the HC diet contained an additional 16 g/day non-nutritive fiber (Solka Floc), which increased the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of the diet from 9.5 to 23.5 g/day and Crampton and Maynard cellulose from 5.4 to 19.3 g/day. When apparent fiber digestibilities during 5-day periods were determined, both NDF and cellulose digestibilities varied greatly and inconsistently in each subject throughout both diet periods. Therefore, samples were pooled to form a single 20–30 day composite for each subject during each diet. Mean apparent NDF digestibility, after correcting for protein contamination in fecal NDF, was 70.4 ± 7.3% during the LC diet and decreased to 23.0 ± 15.0% during the HC diet. Cellulose digestibility was 69.7 ± 10.7% without and 15.7 ± 17.4% with the added cellulose. Hemicellulose was calculated as NDF minus cellulose. When the fecal NDF was corrected for protein contamination, hemicellulose digestibility averaged 71.7 ± 5.4% during the LC diet and 51.0 ± 7.9% during the HC diet. In a separate experiment, 16 g/day Solka Floc was ingested with a semi-purified liquid diet and only 8% of the cellulose was digested. These results suggest that more than half of the fiber in a LC diet containing fruits, vegetables and refined grains in degraded, while the apparent digestibility of refined cellulose is minimal.

KEY WORDS: • neutral detergent fiber • hemicellulose • cellulose • dietary fiber digestibility

¹ Supported in part by NIH Grant AM 21712. The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Wisconsin American Cancer Society Institutional Grant IN-35Q-6.

² Presented in part at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Meeting, Anaheim, CA, April 1980. Slavin, J. L. & Marlett, J. A. (1980) Fed. Proc. 39, 658.

Manuscript received 12 May 1980.

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