The effects of a dessert beverage supplemented with indigestible dextrin on defecation and health conditions in female students.

placebo. For the entire seven weeks, the subjects filled out daily questionnaires concerning their defecation and fecal conditions and weekly questionnaires concerning their health conditions. Subjects with slight constipation significantly increased their frequency of defecation, the number of days with defecation, and the amount of defecation during the test period when they received the beverage containing indigestible dextrin, as compared to the control period (n=12). Moreover, these subjects also significantly increased their number of days with defecation compared to those when consuming the placebo beverage. The health conditions questionnaire also showed an improvement in constipation when the subjects consumed the beverage containing indigestible dextrin.