Studies on the Improvement of Dietary Fibre Intake.

It was studied whether the enrichment of bread and crescents with a white fiber concentrate prepared from wheat (Vitacel Weizenfaser, 97 g dietary fiber/100 g) affected bowel habits in older people (n = 75) and whether the subjects accepted the enriched products. The addition of the concentrate to low-fiber flour (4 g/100 g flour) increased the fiber content of crescents by 1.6 g and of wheat-rye mixed bread by 2.4 g/ 100 g. Results on bowel habits are reported for participants consuming more than 4 g/d of the additional fiber. In these subjects (n = 56), fiber intake increased by 6.1 ± 1.7 g/d. The intake of the wheat fiber concentrate led to a significantly increased defecation frequency in constipated subjects (n = 39), but had no effect on this paramater in non-constipated participants (n = 17). The enriched products were better accepted compared with the non-enriched ones.