Low residue diet affects motility of the duodenum as well as the colon

Abstract

An insidious change of diet has occurred during this century in the more developed countries. The refining, processing and packaging of foods has resulted in increased consumption of concentrated carbohydrate and fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol, and a reduction in the intake of vegetable fibre. This dietary modification has been blamed for the emergence of many gastrointestinal disorders¹. Early investigators concentrated on such disorders of the colon because of the accessibility of the sigmoid to probes and cannulas. Results suggested that some of the effects of changed diet may be due to disordered motor function of the colon: abnormal patterns of motility have been demonstrated in many symptomatic or ‘functional’ disorders, as well as organic disease, and, in some, can be corrected by increasing fibre content of the diet. Furthermore, experimental animals fed on high-fat, low-residue diets have developed similar abnormal motility patterns².