The British journal of nutrition
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Comparative Study
Effects of varying content of soluble dietary fibre from wheat flour and oat milling fractions on gastric emptying in pigs.
Four pigs fitted with a gastric cannula were fed on a wheat-flour-based diet (WF) and three oat-based diets, consisting mainly of oat flour (OF), rolled oats (RO) or oat bran (OB), for 1 week each. The stomach contents were collected quantitatively daily at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 or 5 h after feeding. The viscosity (mPa.s) of the liquid fraction of stomach contents 1 h after feeding was 1.7 with diet WF, 15 with diet OF, 30 with diet RO and approximately 400 with diet OB. ⋯ No effect related to the DF content of the diet was seen in the gastric emptying of starch and Cr2O3 (solid-phase marker). In conclusion, soluble DF from oats increased the viscosity of stomach contents and increased the ability of the dry matter to retain water. Higher levels of soluble DF led to higher recoveries of digesta, the liquid phase and DF itself in the initial stage of gastric emptying, whereas no effect was seen on the gastric emptying of starch.