Evaluation of the Effects of Cellulose on Fecal and Intestinal Characteristics of Mice

Currently food products are being developed to which purified plant fiber is added. Few investigations have attempted to correlate the effects of added fiber with changes in other dietary components. Purified cellulose powder (10%) was added to the artificial diets based upon corn starch or sucrose (60%). Daily fecal output showed the expected increase with a fibrous diet. Transit times decreased in the fiber‐fed mice with the sucrose based diet having the most rapid rate of traverse. Measurement of the moisture content of the feces revealed no correlation with diet. Greater force was required to deform fibrous fecal pellets. The intestines of mice fed fiber or sucrose containing diets tended to have a lower force for a given level of strain.