| Research Abstract |
Fruit and vegetables are good sources of dietary fibre, but we should reconsider the importance of fungi and seaweed as dietary fiber supplying food.
Physicochemical properties of and dietary fiber content in Auricularia auricula, Auricularia polytricha, Tremella fuciformis, Grifola albicans, kelp, sea mustard, Hizikia fusiformis, Gelidium amansii, and agar-agar were measured. They have relatively high water holding capacity, settling volume in water, bulk density, anti-oxidative and reducing activities, high dietary fiber content and relatively high ammonium oxalate-oxalic acid soluble substance (OOSS). Feeding fungi did not accelerate the gastrointestinal transit time, however faecal water content was increased by fungi feeding. The increase may be attributed to the OOSS.Although OOSS is not effective in the gastrointestinal transit time as cellulose is, OOSS may have an effect on constipation prevention by the increased water content in the faeces. Therefore fungi and seaweed can wor
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k efficiently as dietary supplying food and can show physiological effects.
Although Japanese panellists preferred both Auricularia auricula and Auricularia polytricha, Korean panellists preferred Auricularia auricula to Auricularia polytricha. Korean people are familiar to Auricularia auricula but Japanese people are familiar to Auricularia polytricha. Almost all college students in Japan and in Korea know the word-dietary fibre, but they do not always eat fungi and seaweed to prevent constipation.
All the students in elementary school do not think that constipation has bad effects on their health. However, the elder the students were, the bigger the number of the students who knew dietary fiber became. All of them did not understand the physiological importance of dietary fibre. Considerable number of the students did not expect fungi and seaweed to be rich in dietary fibre.
It is needed to reconsider the importance of fungi and seaweed as dietary fiber supplying food and to let students know the physiological importance of dietary fibre. Less
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