Sugar, fat, and the risk of colorectal cancer.

The habitual diet of 50 patients with large bowel cancer, as assessed by a dietary history method, was compared with that of 50 closely matched controls. Patients were included only if their symptoms were unlikely to have changed previous eating habits. The mean daily intakes of all major nutrient classes and of dietary fibre were estimated.

Effects of dietary sucrose on factors influencing cholesterol gall stone formation.

Twelve subjects with radiolucent gall stones and bile supersaturated with cholesterol were studied after six weeks each on diets which contained 112 g and 16 g respectively of refined (fibre depleted) sucrose but which allowed free access to other foods. Energy intake was 24.5% higher on the high sugar diet and body weight ended 1.

Empyema of the gall bladder - reappraisal of a neglected disease.

Thirty two patients with empyema of the gall bladder were identified among 1327 cases of gall-bladder disease presenting to one hospital over a six year period. Abdominal pain had been present for a median of eight days and, in eight cases, for between one and four months. In a few cases, the disease was painless and was discovered unexpectedly at postmortem or at operation for unrelated disease.

Moderate alcohol intake reduces bile cholesterol saturation and raises HDL cholesterol.

The effect of alcohol on plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and on bile cholesterol saturation was measured in 12 healthy volunteers with a very low initial alcohol intake who drank 39 g alcohol daily for six weeks, and then abstained from alcohol for 6 weeks. HDL cholesterol (mean +/- SEM) rose significantly from 1.07 +/- 0.

Not just fibre--the nutritional consequences of refined carbohydrate foods.

The dietary intake of 28 volunteers was assessed over two 6-week periods while they ate, alternately, a diet containing refined carbohydrate foods in commonly consumed amounts and a diet virtually devoid of such foods. The following nutritional effects of refined foods were observed: increased energy intake (except in low consumers of sugar), decreased intake of dietary fibre, and decreased intake of nearly all the vitamins and minerals recorded in tables of food composition. These effects may have harmful consequences.

Diet and gall stones: effects of refined and unrefined carbohydrate diets on bile cholesterol saturation and bile acid metabolism.

It has been suggested that consumption of refined carbohydrate foods (notably sugar and white flour) increases bile cholesterol saturation and hence the risk of cholesterol gall stone formation. To test this hypothesis, 13 subjects with probable cholesterol gall stones ate refined and unrefined carbohydrate diets, each for six weeks in random order. On the refined carbohydrate diet, subjects ate more refined sugar (mean = SEM: 106 +/- 7 vs 6 +/- 1 g/day, p less than 0.

Assessment of the metabolic effects of dietary carbohydrate and fibre by measuring urinary excretion of C-peptide.

An assessment of the metabolic effect of dietary carbohydrate on daily insulin secretion, reflected by the 24-h urine output of C-peptide, has been made. Urinary C-peptide excretion increased when the carbohydrate intake of 6 normal subjects was increased from 200 to 400 g. A high-fibre diet rich in beans and lentils caused a significant fall in urine C-peptide and a lowering of blood glucose values in both normal and diabetic subjects.

A relation between high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and bile cholesterol saturation.

The association of cholesterol gall stones with coronary artery disease is controversial. To investigate this possible relation at the biochemical level, bile cholesterol saturation and the plasma concentrations of triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) were measured in 25 healthy, middle-aged women. Bile cholesterol saturation index was negatively correlated with HDL cholesterol.

Diet and the diabetic: the fallacy of a controlled carbohydrate intake.

The dietary intake of 16 well-established diabetics was recorded over six-week periods on two different diets--a conventional, carbohydrate-controlled diet and an unrestricted, carbohydrate diet which allowed free choice as to quantity of food eaten and time of meals. In all patients the carbohydrate intake varied considerably from day to day and the variation was as great on the supposedly controlled carbohydrate diet as on the unrestricted diet. In agreement with other studies, carbohydrate intake was often considerably higher on the usual diabetic diet than had been recommended or than the patient believed they were taking.

Unrefined carbohydrate and dietary fibre in treatment of diabetes mellitus.

Sixteen diabetics were studied over six-week periods on two diets--a conventional carbohydrate-restricted diet and a diet which excluded all refined (fibre-depleted) carbohydrate but which allowed unrefined (fibre-intact) carbohydrate freely. On the latter, there was a substantial increase in dietary fibre intake. Despite this, there was no change in 24-h urinary excretion of glucose nor in blood glycosylated haemoglobin concentration, and there was only a modest improvement in post-prandial plasma glucose concentration.

Do colonic bacteria contribute to cholesterol gall-stone formation? Effects of lactulose on bile.

Ten healthy middle-aged women volunteered for a study to test the effect of lactulose--a synthetic, non-absorbable disaccharide--on the colonic metabolism of bile acids and on bile lipid composition. Lactulose (60 g daily in eight cases, 39 g daily in two) was taken as a proprietary syrup for six weeks, and bile was collected by duodenal intubation before and immediately after six weeks. All subjects showed a fall in the percentage of the 7-alpha-dehydroxylated bile acid deoxycholic acid (mean 28.

The role of dietary fiber in satiety, glucose, and insulin: studies with fruit and fruit juice.

Healthy volunteers ingested sugar-equivalent meals of oranges and orange juice and of grapes and grape juice. Satiety, assessed by two subjective scoring systems, was greater after whole fruit than after juice and the return of appetite was delayed. With oranges, as previously reported with apples, there was a significantly smaller insulin response to fruit than to juice and less postabsorptive fall in plasma glucose.