Abstract

Test meals in Europeans and Bantu in Johannesburg show that the stomachs of normal Europeans in the main secrete more acid and pepsin.

Gastric studies in Bantu on a European diet compared with those on a more non-European type of diet reveal no difference in secretory behaviour. This, it is suggested, rules out current dietary habits as being responsible for the difference in gastric secretory behaviour found between European and Bantu.

The Bantu on a European diet had a slower rate of gastric emptying than those on a non-European diet.