Recent studies suggest that adding fiber to your daily diet and eating high-fiber food can benefit people with type 2 diabetes.
One previous study has talked about why eating whole fruits is better than drinking 100% pure fruit juice.
One reason is that whole fruits contains dietary fiber, which can prevent you from consuming too much calories and promote your gut bacteria to control type 2 diabetes.
One recent study from the Rutgers University provides scientific evidence to support the dietary fiber’s role in diabetes control.
It is known that type 2 diabetes develops when the pancreas makes too little insulin or doesn’t use insulin well. Insulin is a hormone that help glucose enter cells for use as energy.
In our gut, dietary fibers can help produce short-chain fatty acids that nourish our gut lining cells. This will reduce inflammation and help control our appetite.
It has shown that lack of short-chain fatty acids is linked to type 2 diabetes and other diseases. But the effectiveness of the dietary fiber is not clear.
In the study, two groups of Chinese people with type 2 diabetes took either a standard diet for type 2 diabetes or a diet rich in fibers and prebiotics.
The team found that after 12 weeks, people on the high-fiber diet had much reduced blood sugar levels than people on the standard diabetes diet.
In addition, dietary fiber helped the group lose more body weight.
The researchers checked the gut bacteria of the two groups of people.
Surprisingly, of the 141 strains of short chain fatty acids that produce gut bacteria identified by next-generation sequencing, only 15 are promoted by consuming more fibers.
Thus, the 15 strains of short chain fatty acids are likely to be the key drivers of better health.
The researchers explained that bolstered by the high-fiber diet, the 15 strains became the dominant strains in the gut after they boosted levels of the short-chain fatty acids butyrate and acetate.
These acids created a mildly acidic gut environment that reduced populations of detrimental bacteria and led to increased insulin production and better blood glucose control.
To summarize, dietary fiber can rebalance the gut microbiota that help digest food.
So what foods are rich in dietary fiber?
In the study, the researchers used Chinese traditional foods that are high-fiber. There are lots of options if you are on a western diet.
Some good sources of dietary fiber include peas, beans and lentils. For instance, cooked split peas, black beans, lima beans and lentils all have 12+ grams of fiber in each cup.
Some vegetables and fruits are full of dietary fiber too. This includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, raspberries, blackberries, avocados, pears and bananas.
Some staple foods, such as oatmeal, pearled barley and whole-wheat pasta, are good sources of dietary fiber, too.
In case it is hard to add high-fiber foods in your diet, you can use supplements to get extra fiber.
Recent research shows that extra fiber supplements with meals may boost insulin in people with type 2 diabetes.
One study from the University at Buffalo shows that in type 2 diabetic patient, fiber supplement can increase insulin secretion even after eating a high-fat, high-carb meal.
The study was led by an expert in diabetes research and treatment and a pioneer in exploring novel ways that people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes can achieve better blood sugar control.
This study builds on his team’s pervious work. Dietary fiber is known to reduce the incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in large epidemiological studies, and this study aimed at finding the mechanism at cellular and molecular levels.
In the study, people with type 2 diabetes ate a high-fat, high-carb meal. Their blood sugar level, insulin level, and protein level involved in the inflammation were measured.
The same group of people ate the same meal a week later, but this time they also took Fiber One (a commercially available fiber supplement) before and after the meal.
The researchers found that after eating the meal, these people’s insulin secretion increased a lot after taking the fiber. However, this increase wasn’t sufficient to reduce their glucose levels.
In addition, the fiber suppressed inflammation and oxidative stress in these patients.
The team said “an increase in dietary content of fiber, whether through food or a supplement, should be encouraged in order to reduce oxidative and inflammatory stress and hence, a tendency to induce insulin resistance.”
Therefore, taking fiber supplement can benefit people with type 2 diabetes.
If you intend to use fiber supplements, here are some options to think about.
One major type of fiber supplement is made of psyllium husk powder. Psyllium is a soluble fiber derived from the seeds of Plantago ovata, a herb grown in India.
The powder can form a gel when you combine it with water or milk. Psyllium husk powder is high-fiber supplement.
Each teaspoon can provide 4 grams of fiber, representing 16% of your recommended daily fiber intake.
If you don’t like powder, then you can choose psyllium husk capsules. Compared with powder, capsules is a more convenient way to increase your daily intake of dietary fiber.
Another type of fiber supplement uses vegetable fibers, such as organic flax fiver. This type of supplement also can contain probiotics and soothing herbs to help with digestive balance and intestinal health.
The third type of fiber supplement is prebiotics. Prebiotics are the specific fibers that nourish healthy bacteria and help them “set up shop” and thrive within your digestive tract.
It is hard to incorporating enough prebiotic foods into daily diet, so taking prebiotic fiber supplements can help you get enough dietary fiber.
Finally, there are some high-fiber snacks you can choose. Like the one mentioned in the fiber supplement study, the fiber snacks provide you extra fiber and even more protein, minerals and vitamin.
To conclude, dietary fiber is very beneficial to people with type 2 diabetes. It can help balance the gut bacteria, reduce inflammation and increase insulin secretion.
Both high-fiber foods and fiber supplement are good for you. Keep using them and you may find surprising results!
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