Table 3.

Organ weights of rats adjusted for total body weight

	Age (days)
	7	14	21	28 (on diet)	35 (on diet)
Total body weight (g)
Control	16.7 ± 0.5a	37.0 ± 1.3b	62.0 ± 1.1c	92.1 ± 2.9d	137.4 ± 6.9e
High fibre				92.7 ± 3.8d	145.5 ± 4.5e
High protein				90.0 ± 3.3d	140.7 ± 6.3e
Liver weight (mg g−1)
Control	32.9 ± 2.0a	33.6 ± 4.5ab	39.9 ± 8.5c	43.2 ± 2.04d	47.2 ± 4.0d
High fibre				41.3 ± 2.7d	42.9 ± 3.9d
High protein				46.2 ± 1.8 d‡	49.9 ± 3.5e‡
Stomach weight (mg g−1)
Control	7.8 ± 1.0ab	7.4 ± 4.0ab	8.1 ± 5.0ab	8.7 ± 0.5a	7.8 ± 0.8a
High fibre				8.5 ± 0.9a	7.8 ± 1.2a
High protein				9.3 ± 0.6a	7.7 ± 0.7b
Small intestine length (m g−1)
Control	2.2 ± 0.2a	1.4 ± 0.2b	1.1 ± 0.1c	0.9 ± 0.1d	0.7 ± 0.1e
High fibre				1.0 ± 0.1d	0.7 ± 0.1e
High Protein				1.0 ± 0.1d	0.7 ± 0.1e
Small intestine weight (mg g−1)
Control	34.1 ± 1.5a	29.6 ± 4.5b	30.1 ± 7.0bc	33.1 ± 1.8d	30.5 ± 2.3e
High fibre				35.4 ± 1.0d	33.2 ± 2.5e
High protein				34.2 ± 1.3d	34.3 ± 2.7 d‡
Colon length (mm g−1)
Control	2.55 ± 0.01a	1.65 ± 0.01b	1.26 ± 0.01c	1.12 ± 0.01c,x	0.86 ± 0.01d,x
High fibre				1.30 ± 0.01c,y	1.02 ± 0.01d,y
High protein				1.03 ± 0.01c,x	0.89 ± 0.01d,x
Colon weight (mg g−1)
Control	3.0 ± 1.0a	3.8 ± 4.0a	4.4 ± 1.1ab	5.2 ± 0.3c,x	5.1 ± 0.6c,x
High fibre				6.3 ± 0.3c,y	6.4 ± 0.7c,y
High protein				5.5 ± 0.4c,x	4.9 ± 0.8c,x

Values are means ±s.e.m. with an n= 20 males (M) and 16 females (F) on day 7; n= 16 (M) and 19 (F) on day 14; n= 16 (M) and 17 (F) on day 21; n= 6 (M) and 6 (F) per diet group on days 28 and 35 each. Superscripts ‘a’ to ‘e’ represent significant differences (P < 0.05) between ages within a row. Superscripts ‘x’ and ‘y’ represent a significant difference (P < 0.05) between diet groups for both males and females within an age category. Values with different letters are significantly different from each other. ‡Significant difference in one sex only; in males only on d28 between the high protein diet versus control and fibre for liver weight (P < 0.05); in females only on d35 between the high protein diet compared to control (P= 0.01) and high fibre for liver weight (P= 0.01); and in males only on d35 between high protein versus control (P < 0.05) only for small intestine weight.