Abstract
Twenty-one chronic duodenal ulcer patients in a rice-eating area were put on to an unrefined wheat diet and twenty-one continued on their previous rice diet. After 5 years only 14% of the first group had had relapses compared with 81% of the second group. A similar 5-year relapse rate (80%) was obtained in a group of thirty patients from another area with a more varied rice diet. The author attributes this difference to the increased mastication required by the unrefined wheat diet, which is associated with an increase in saliva, lower stomach acidity and reduced bile output.