Diet, nutrition intake, and metabolism in populations at high and low risk for colon cancer. Determination of fiber and fiber constituents in food and stools.

A procedure is described for the determination of total neutral detergent fiber in composite food and stool samples. This procedure also determines hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, and cutin + silica in these samples. The quantitation of pectins which involves a separate independent procedure is also described. The present modified neutral detergent fiber procedure yielded values that were significantly higher than the crude fiber method described in previous literature.