Assessment of hormonal and metabolic effects of dietary fiber in young Thai women.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether daily dietary fiber intake at the reference level has any impact on studied hormones in a population of Thai women.


METHODS
Twenty-eight healthy Thai women (aged 18-20 years, BMI 18.5-25 kg/m2) with a history of regular menstrual cycles committed themselves to prepared food without changing the usual ratio of three major macronutrients. Dietary fiber from natural source at the amount of 8-10 g/day equal to their regular consumption was added to their daily diet for one menstrual cycle, then, increased to be 25-30 g/day for another 2 successive cycles. A single blood sample on midluteal day (day 18-23) was obtained in all three cycles. Plasma luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin, estradiol, progesterone, cortisol, and insulin together with total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides were analyzed.


RESULTS
The measured hormones and lipids did not change significantly when compared between a control and two experimental cycles (p > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Short-term consumption of 25-30 g/day fiber diet as recommended by the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) in a Thai population did not alter the studied hormones and lipids thus did not create any health problems.
Chearskul
Supornpim
S
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. sisch@mahidol.ac.th
Supingklud
Navaporn
N
Nitithamyong
Anadi
A
Sirichakwal
Prapaisri
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood*; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D011388:Prolactin; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013785:Thailand
D004043:Dietary Fiber; D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary; D007328:Insulin; D008055:Lipids; D011388:Prolactin; D006854:Hydrocortisone