Green kiwifruit is known to relieve constipation, and the evidence for the comfort side of it was thinner. An international crossover trial enrolled three groups: 63 healthy controls, 60 patients with functional constipation and 61 with . Each person took two green kiwifruit daily for four weeks and for four weeks, in random order, with a between. What did the bowels do?
Kiwifruit added about one and a half bowel movements a week. In the constipated groups, rose by 1.53 per week in functional constipation and 1.73 in constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, both against each person’s own baseline. Measures of gastrointestinal comfort improved significantly in both constipated groups on a validated symptom rating scale. No significant adverse events occurred.
That green kiwifruit relieves constipation was already known. The reports of improved gastrointestinal comfort alongside it were less well established, and comfort is often what sends someone to a doctor in the first place. This trial set out to measure both, in the populations that actually have the problem.
Three groups took part: 63 healthy controls, 60 patients with functional constipation, and 61 patients with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Each was randomly assigned to consume two green kiwifruit or 7.5 grams of psyllium per day for four weeks, then had a four-week washout, then took the other treatment for four weeks.
The primary outcome was the number of complete spontaneous bowel movements per week. Kiwifruit was associated with a clinically relevant increase of at least one and a half per week, specifically 1.53 in functional constipation and 1.73 in constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Measures of gastrointestinal comfort, on a validated symptom rating scale, improved significantly in both constipated groups. No significant adverse events were seen.
Read what the comparison was. Both arms received an active treatment, and the figures above are differences from each participant’s own baseline rather than a head-to-head margin over psyllium. The authors present this as original evidence that a fresh whole fruit delivers clinically relevant improvement, and that is the claim the data support. Kiwifruit is a suitable dietary treatment, not a proven improvement on the supplement.
wat. Two kiwifruit a day bought constipated patients roughly one and a half extra complete bowel movements a week, and a more comfortable gut.
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It is a whole fresh fruit producing a clinically relevant change in a measured bowel outcome. That is a rarer finding than it sounds, because most fiber evidence comes from isolated supplements.
How do we know?
Gearry and colleagues ran an international multicenter randomized crossover trial in which participants consumed two green kiwifruit or 7.5 grams of psyllium daily for four weeks each, separated by a four-week washout. Weekly complete spontaneous bowel movements were the primary outcome.
What is still unknown
The reported gains are changes from each participant’s own baseline, not a demonstration that kiwifruit beat psyllium. The comparator was an active supplement, so this shows kiwifruit works, not that it works better.
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