Equicaloric Diets Studied during Waking

The output of acid from an innervated canine gastric pouch is directly proportional to the nitrogen content of meals entering the stomach (Saint-Hilaire, Lavers, Kennedy, and Code, 1960). The buffering power of meals also depends on their protein content. High protein meals thus stimulate much acid secretion by the gastric mucosa and also buffer the acid secreted. The acidity of the gastric contents is therefore less than that of the pure gastric juice secreted by a pouch (Kahn and Yaure, 1924). In patients with duodenal ulcer taking food the acidity of the gastric contents tends to be high for a greater proportion of the time than in normal subjects (James and Pickering, 1949). To shorten these periods of high acidity, opposing suggestions have been made about diets: a low protein-high carbohydrate diet has been recommended to reduce acid secretion (Dekkers, 1956) and a high protein diet has been advocated to buffer the acid secreted (Cleave, 1962). The experiments reported here were designed to test the effect on the acidity of the gastric contents of altering the ratio of protein to carbohydrate in equicaloric meals.