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The key to your desired weight lies in oats and barley. Researchers discovered that the fiber beta-glucan can reduce body fat percentage.
The intestinal microbiome is becoming increasingly important in nutritional science. Around 1,000 species of bacteria influence human health in a variety of ways. Many of these bacteria feed on fiber in food that humans cannot digest.
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“We now know that fiber is important and beneficial,” explains biomedical scientist Frank Duca from the University of Arizona (UA). “But the problem is that there are so many different types of fiber.”
In a study He therefore investigated with colleagues from the UA and the University of Vienna the question of which type of fiber best supports weight loss and blood sugar regulation. To do this, the scientists examined different fibers in a group of mice.
Beta-glucan reduces body fat and weight on a high-fat diet
Only the fiber beta-glucan, which is abundant in barley and oats, was able to reduce body fat percentage and weight within 18 weeks in mice fed a high-fat diet.
Other fibers tested, such as wheat dextrin, pectin, resistant starch and cellulose, had no such effect – although they did significantly change the composition of the gut microbiome compared to mice without fiber.
Animals fed barley flour rich in beta-glucan had increased butyrate concentrations. Butyrate is a metabolic product that is produced when fiber is broken down by microbes. It induces the release of the protein GLP-1.
“Part of the benefits of consuming fiber is the release of GLP-1 and other intestinal peptides that regulate appetite and body weight,” explains Duca. GLP-1 is the natural protein that synthetic drugs like Ozempic mimic to stimulate insulin secretion.
“But we believe that this is not the whole effect. We believe that butyrate may also have other positive effects that have nothing to do with intestinal peptides, such as improving the intestinal barrier and influencing peripheral organs such as the liver,” says Duca.
Fiber shapes the composition of intestinal bacteria
A marker for a stable intestinal microbiome in healthy people is the diversity of bacteria, explains Dirk Hallerprofessor at the Technical University of Munich and head of a symposium at the German Nutrition Society (DGE) on the topic of microbiome and nutrition.
The beneficial bacteria break down carbohydrates and form short-chain fatty acids, primarily butyrate. They stabilize the intestinal barrier and regulate the immune system. The type and amount of fiber in the diet have a major influence on the composition of these bacteria.
