Lactose--a potential dietary fiber. The regulation of its microecological effect in the intestinal tract. 1. Problems, state of knowledge and methods]

Food components of different chemical structure which attain the colon without being attacked by digestion and absorption during their transit through the small intestine are defined as dietary fibre. In the colon they serve as energy or nutrient source for the intestinal microflora or are excreted without change. Not only chemical structure is decisive when a food component has to be assigned to either nutrients or dietary fibre: Substances resisting small intestine digestion due to the lack of corresponding catabolizing enzymes in man are supposed to be "obligate" dietary fibre. "Potential" dietary fibre are nutrients which are only partially digested in the small intestine. Lactose--the main carbohydrate of milk--represents a typical potential dietary fibre. The present paper investigates the factors being responsible for both the degree of lactose utilization in the small intestine and its efficiency in the colon.