The power of insoluble fiber

11-Dec-2019 - Germany

Insoluble dietary fibres work! But they do not have the same effect on every patient. As an international team led by DIfE scientist Dr. Stefan Kabisch shows in the journal Nutrients, it is important to know the metabolic state of a patient more precisely in order to be able to give optimal nutritional recommendations. Individually adapted nutrition could be useful especially for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, but also for other diseases.

More than 6 million people with type 2 diabetes live in Germany - and the trend is rising. Long-term complications can reduce the quality of life and lead to premature death. Eating habits, physical activity and other lifestyle factors are considered key to influencing the onset and development of metabolic disease. Especially a diet with many insoluble dietary fibres - mainly from whole grain products - should protect. This is the conclusion of a number of large epidemiological observational studies. But people who eat a lot of wholemeal products often live a healthier life. So far it was unclear whether the positive effects actually came from the indigestible plant fibres.

On the trail of the effect of dietary fibres

Kabisch and his team wanted to understand exactly whether and how insoluble dietary fibres can protect against type 2 diabetes. For this purpose, they conducted a randomized study, the Optimal Fibre Trial for Diabetes Prevention, or OptiFiT study for short. "The results point out that insoluble ballast materials actually work: on the blood sugar and possibly also on other metabolism building sites , say Dr. Stefan Kabisch, study leader and scientific coworker of the working group clinical nutrition/DZD at the German Institut for nourishing research potsdam RH bridge (DIfE). Already over previous analyses of the OptiFiT study the researchers found out that insoluble ballast materials affect among other things positively the long-term blood sugar value. "The data from the current studies now show that there are subgroups of patients who benefit particularly strongly from the dietary fibres. In particular, glucose tolerance improved in subjects with an additionally elevated fasting sugar level and inflammatory values improved in obese subjects if they were in the dietary fibre group," explains Kabisch.

Between March 2010 and October 2012, a total of 180 subjects with a type 2 diabetes precursor participated in the study. The participants received identical nutritional advice and were additionally divided into two groups. The first group received insoluble, oat-based fibre in the form of drinking powder twice a day for two years. The second group received only a placebo, i.e. a drinking supplement without dietary fibres. In order to assess whether an improvement in metabolism was really apparent, the research team carried out blood glucose stress tests. As a blinded study, neither subjects nor researchers knew who received which supplement. "In purely methodological terms, it is therefore a very high-quality study that can say quite precisely whether it was really the insoluble dietary fibres that had the positive effect," says the study physician.

Special benefit for patients with elevated fasting sugar

The increased benefit of insoluble fibre for people with abnormal fasting sugar may indicate that patients with fatty liver in particular may benefit from the treatment. "Prediabetics with elevated fasting sugar often also have fatty liver. Patients without fatty liver may not benefit as much from a high-fiber diet," said Dr. Stefan Kabisch. However, as not all patients in the OptiFiT study were measured for fatty liver, only the interpretation via this detour remained. Prediabetics with elevated fasting sugar are also more overweight than those with normal fasting sugar. However, according to the new evaluation of the OptiFiT study, overweight does not explain the particular advantage of prediabetics with elevated fasting sugar. "However, the additional benefit with regard to the inflammatory processes in obese patients is an independent advantage. The new analyses therefore provide an important impetus in the direction of individualised nutrition therapy," said Kabisch.

With biomarkers for individualized nutrition therapy

In the next step, the researchers want to use the data from the OptiFiT study for analyses of specific biomarkers associated with fatty liver and the observed metabolic improvement. The aim is to be able to predict in future who responds to which food components and how. In addition, there will be follow-up studies with new volunteers to confirm the current results.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1164087/the-power-of-insoluble-fiber.html