The dietary effects of sodium carboxymethylcellulose in man

Following a 7-day control period, five male volunteers consumed 15 g sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) daily for 23 days. The CMC was well tolerated with no adverse effects on any volunteer. The daily intake of CMC exceeded, by a factor of 7.5, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) recommended for cellulose and its derivatives (group AD = 25 mg/kg body wt). The wide range of measurements made before and at the end of the test period show that the ingestion of CMC had no significant effect on any of the following: plasma biochemistry; haematological indices; urinalysis parameters; glucose tolerance; serum cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipids; breath hydrogen and breath methane concentrations. The intestinal transit time decreased for four of the volunteers and increased for one of them. For all volunteers, faecal wet and dry weights increased substantially. Faecal bile acids increased moderately for some volunteers and more extensively for others. Faecal fat increased for four volunteers and decreased slightly for one. The excretion of neutral sterols decreased for all volunteers when calculated as mu mol sterols/g dry wt of faeces. These changes are of physiological and dietary interest; they do not reflect any adverse toxicological effects resulting from the ingestion of CMC.