Chris Shugart
Beta Glucan: The Get-Lean Fiber
Fiber helps with fat loss, but not for the reasons you think. Here's why it works, and which fiber beats all the others.
Overweight people usually eat a high-calorie diet packed with fat and sugar. No surprise there. But they also eat a low-fiber diet. Actually, most people do: 90% of women and 97% of men don't meet the recommended fiber intake. When people increase their intake, they typically lose fat.
Yes, fiber helps keep you feeling full so you eat fewer calories, but the real fat-loss effect comes from fiber's influence on your gut microbiota or flora. These microorganisms inhabiting your GI tract are, in many ways, your boss. They influence your metabolism, brain function, and immune system, among other things. In short, if they "get mad" at you, you gain fat easily, get depressed or anxious, and become a disease magnet.
Okay, eat more fiber. Got it. But what kind? A new study gives us the unequivocal answer: beta glucan (Buy at Amazon).
The Fiber Study
It's ethically questionable to make people fat just to see how different fiber types affect them, so this was an animal study. That's fine, gut microbiota and metabolic dysfunction are effectively the same in both mice and men, and mice complain less.
The researchers took some mice and fattened them up with lard and sugar. Groups of mice were fed different types of fiber for 18 weeks and then analyzed for changes in body weight, insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles, gut microbiota composition, and metabolite levels.
Some mice were fed beta glucan while others were fed pectin, wheat dextrin, resistant starch, or cellulose (as a control). They consumed the same number of calories.
What Happened?
Keep in mind, the researchers weren't specifically studying beta glucan. They didn't know which fiber type was best when they started. However, beta glucan was the winner by a mile. In a nutshell, the other fibers had little to no effect on most of the important markers. However, beta glucan...
- Caused the mice to stop getting fat or lose fat (reduction in body weight, reduced adiposity).
- Improved overall metabolic health.
- Improved insulin sensitivity and stabilized blood glucose levels (critical for getting lean and staying that way).
- Improved lipid profiles.
- Increased beneficial gut bacterial species and created a more diverse and balanced microbial community.
- Increased production of short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate, known for their beneficial effects on gut health and metabolism.
- In total, the beta glucan supplemented mice were leaner and metabolically healthier, even though they consumed the same number of calories as the other mice.
The scientists concluded: "These findings demonstrate that beta glucan consumption is a promising dietary strategy for metabolic disease, possibly via increased energy expenditure through alterations in the gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites…"
How to Use This Info
Beta glucan (Buy at Amazon) is a relative newcomer on the supplement scene. Most people take it for its immunity-boosting benefits, but this study and others show it's also a fantastic, stimulant-free fat-loss supplement.
The study above appeared to use beta glucan derived from oats or yeast. That's fine for rats, but those sources aren't very bioavailable (and yeast is a common allergen). Algal beta glucan is the best source for humans.
Algal beta glucan's cell wall is much thinner than oat or yeast, making it easy to digest. Plus, the concentration of beta glucan in the cell walls of algae is over 95%, much higher than other sources. Each serving of Biotest Beta Glucan (Buy at Amazon) contains 600 mg derived from Euglena gracilis algae.
Reference
- Howard et al. "Impact of Plant-Based Dietary Fibers on Metabolic Homeostasis in High-Fat Diet Mice via Alterations in the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites." The Journal of Nutrition. Volume 154, Issue 7, July 2024, Pages 2014-2028.
Good write up.