[Effect of the ingestion of dietary fiber on the digestibility of lipids in a sorghum-consuming African population].

Digestibility measurements were carried out on 12 men. Their habitual diet, deficient in animal products, is based on sorghum meals which supply between 2.4 and 4.2 g of crude fiber per 100 g of dry matter. Over three 11-day periods, the subjects received 3 successive diets (A, B and C) which supplied respectively 3.3, 4.8 and 5.4 g of crude fiber per 100 g of dry matter. Reduced lipids digestibility was noted, even for diet A which was the poorest in fiber content. No difference was observed between diet A and diet B (92.3 and 91.7% respectively). The apparent digestibility of lipids dropped to 86.1 with diet C. True digestibility of lipids is hidden by poorly digestible dietary lipids. Lipid losses increased more rapidly than nitrogen losses with increasing of fiber content in diets. On these regimens, there were no significant changes in concentrations of fecal fat. Concentration of fecal nitrogen decreases for diets B and C.