The dietary fibre theory and bile salt pattern in Nigerians

The results of bile analysis showed differences in the bile salt pattern of Caucasians and Nigerians, whose dietary habits differ mainly in dietary fibre composition. The Nigerian bile appears to contain less deoxycholate, but more cholate and a larger total pool of bile salts. These findings would seem to lend biochemical support for the epidemiological evidence concerning the uncommon occurrence of cholesterol gallstones and large bowel cancer in Nigeria as, indeed, in the less economically developed contries, where the dietary habits have not undergone comparable revolutionary changes of Western civilization, which have removed cellulose fibre from the diet in the process of industrial refinery.