How Diet Can Affect Those With Diverticular Disease?
About 3% of all NHS prescriptions are for laxatives and purgatives (medicines that clear the bowels) and many millions are spent on ‘over the counter’ purchases to treat constipation. Constipation is uncommon in populations with a high intake of bran, non-starch polysaccharide (dietary fibre). In rural Uganda in Africa, stool weights are around 500gm daily and bowel transit times around 40 hours. In the UK, stool weights in non vegetarians are around 100gm and transit times are longer. Stool consistency is related to water content which is normally around 75%. The most important effect of bran is probably its water-holding capacity. A possible causative link with low dietary fibre diets and diverticular disease was implicated from striking geographical variations in prevalence: low in Africa, high and increasing in Western Europe. Dietary fibre refers to the complex polysaccharides and other ploymers that escape digestion in the stomach and the small bowel and reach the colon. Fibre ob
