The relationship between bowel cancer and fiber content in the diet.

Colon cancer, very rare in rural South African blacks, is also rare in urban dwellers despite considerable rise in prosperity. The disease has scarcely increased during the last quarter of a century. The same situation applies to appendicitis. Endeavors to characterize different black populations in transition (including subjects who have had appendicitis) are being made respecting 1) diet, especially dietary fiber intake; 2) bowel physiology (e.g., transit time); 3) concentrations of fecal bile acids and other metabolites; and 4) the activity of certain fecal enzymes.