Fiber, sucrose and ulcers

Thanks to g for this paper. It's a little observational study looking sucrose vs fiber and their possible association with peptic ulcer. Cleave suggested refined carbohydrate caused duodenal ulcers. The carbophillic nature of post-Keys medicine suggested that fiber could redeem carbohydrate as a source of nutrition. This group from Nottingham (my place of origin) appear to be dubious about this. This phrase comes from the discussion:

"Despite the current healthy diet lobby there were no claims of increased (or decreased) fibre intake by patients or control subjects"

The clear association of ulcers with sucrose was interesting. The total lack of protection from cereal fiber was too (sorry, lack of negative association). But the best bit was vegetable fiber. This was slightly "protective". Until you corrected for social class (and a few other things), at which point the association was lost. Looks a bit suggestive that vegetable fiber intake might just be a surrogate for being more well off.

Another throw away comment from Nottingham in the late 1980s was that Crohn's disease is consistently associated with high refined sugar intake. I think I've seen quite a number of studies coming to that conclusion. But surely sucrose (or HFCS for that matter) can form part of a healthy balanced diet...

Peter