Effect of Rate Of Delivery on Colonic Fermentation of inuliN (EON)

Our challenge is to understand how fibre interacts with whole-gut function to alter colonic fermentation of fermentable oligo-di-mono-saccharides and polyhydric alcohols (FODMAPs). We have previously performed the study entitled the Effect of modified Cellulose On COlonic fermentAtion of inulin (COCOA) in which a modified methylcellulose (food grade product -modified celluloses- which can form gels at body temperature ) was used and showed some reduction, but this was not statistically significant, and much less than with psyllium. We wish to determine whether slowing delivery of inulin will produce a lowering of breath hydrogen equivalent to that seen with psyllium. We also found that the breath hydrogen curve had not shown a consistent fall by 6 hours suggesting that 6 hours was not long enough to accurately define the area under the curve (AUC). We now plan to use breath sampling bags to collect breath samples at home to define the breath hydrogen response over whole 24-hour period post ingestion of test drink. We also hypothesise that the colonic microbiota will influence the fermentation of inulin and will collect stool samples to allow future work to correlate microbiota with fermentation rates as part of a separate Medical Research Council funded study.

Aim Our aim is to test the hypothesis that slowing delivery of inulin will achieve a similar reduction in breath hydrogen production over the 24 hours following ingestion as seen when co-administered with psyllium.

Objective The primary objective is to compare the effect of bolus administration of inulin (co-administrated with psyllium or maltodextrin placebo) with divided dose delivery of inulin over 6 hours on total gas production over 24 hours.

Secondary Objectives Secondary objectives will be 1) to compare breath hydrogen AUC 0-24h with values based on AUC 0-6h that was assessed in the previous study (COCOA) to see how much the shorter period underestimates H2 production; 2) to assess breath methane production AUC 0-24h after consumption of test drinks; and 3) to collect pilot data on habitual dietary FODMAPs intake to assess whether this alters fermentation of inulin.