Dietary fiber assessment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome from Northern India.

BACKGROUND Data on the absolute fiber intake and the source of dietary fiber intake in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have been lacking in northern Indians. OBJECTIVE To find out the absolute fiber intake from different sources of food items in patients with IBS and healthy subjects from northern India. METHODS Using the 72-hour recall method, dietary intake of macronutrients and fiber was determined in 33 consecutive adult patients with IBS and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. RESULTS The patients consumed lower amounts of macronutrients (protein 60.4 g vs 79.3 g, fat 47.7 g vs 65.7 g, and carbohydrates 294.6 g vs 339.8 g) and dietary fiber (8.1 g vs 15.7 g) than the control subjects. Though the patients consumed similar amount of pulses as the controls (46.6 [25.0] vs 46 [19.6] g/day), their fiber intake from pulses was lower (0.8 [0.7] vs 1.4 [0.9] g/day). The intake of fiber from vegetables and fruits was also significantly lower in patients (2.1 and 0.5 g/day, respectively) than in control subjects (5.8 and 3.9 g/day, respectively; p< 0.001 each). CONCLUSION Total dietary fiber intake and intake of fiber from vegetables, fruits and pulses are lower in patients with IBS from northern India than in control subjects.