Soluble fiber turns out to be way more important
than we had imagined. It plays an
important role in glucose production and lowering the brain’s need to trigger
hunger. This is all done in the large
intestine as part of the fermentation,
Understanding how the large intestine actually
works has been slow coming. This
represents an important brick. If you
are eating properly, you have a serious reserve in your large intestine to draw
on. That way if you then use the Arclein
Diet, and shut down the small intestine for a full eighteen hours, you will
still be recovering ample glucose from the large intestine.
In fact this break will encourage your large
intestine to retain the load and prolong the fermentation to draw far more out
of it. If anything what we have
discovered is that keeping the small intestine operating almost continuously
may be a bad idea because it may interfere with energy used to process the
large intestine.
Certainly in our natural environment, the Arclein
Diet more closely adheres to the hunter gatherer eating cycle.
Surprise finding: Fiber prevents obesity and
diabetes by producing glucose in intestines
Sunday, May 11, 2014 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) For the first
time, scientists may have uncovered the mechanism by which fiber helps prevent
obesity and diabetes, in a study conducted by a French-Swedish research team
and published in the journal Cell in
January 2014. Notably, the findings point to a key role played by intestinal
flora, the microorganisms that naturally inhabit the human gut.
Dietary fiber, or roughage, occurs in two separate forms: soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested by the body, but still plays a critical role in absorbing water from the digestive system and providing bulk to keep the intestinal muscles healthy and toned.
Soluble fiber, also known as prebiotic, viscous or fermentable fiber, cannot be digested either. Unlike insoluble fiber, however, soluble fiber is fermented by intestinal microbes into short-chain fatty acids and gases (including propionate and butyrate) which the body can digest.
Research has shown that diets high in fiber significantly reduce the risk of diabetes and obesity in humans and other animals. According to a research review published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health in 2011, the widespread adoption of the Western diet has led to a reduction in fiber intake worldwide and a concurrent increase in health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Physiologically, fiber has been shown to lower cholesterol levels, increase calcium availability, boost immune function, maintain gastrointestinal health and help regulate blood sugar levels.
Fiber causes glucose production, hunger suppression
Because soluble fiber is processed in the
intestines, the French and Swedish researchers decided to investigate whether
fiber's health-promoting properties might be related to the intestine's ability
to produce glucose.
Like the liver and certain other organs, the intestine is capable of breaking down stored energy into glucose, in order to make energy available to the body between meals or at night. When the intestine produces glucose, the sugar is detected by the nerves in the walls of the portal vein, which collects blood flowing immediately out of the intestine. These nerves then signal the brain, which sends signals to the body designed to reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes: reduced hunger, increased rest-energy expenditure and reduced glucose production by the liver.
In order to examine the relationship between soluble fiber and intestinal glucose, the researchers fed rats and mice diets high in soluble fiber, propionate or butyrate. The researchers found that, in these rodents, genes and enzymes responsible for intestinal glucose synthesis became significantly more active. They also found that propionate was used directly by the intestine as part of the glucose production process.
In addition, rodents given a high-fiber, high-sugar and high-fat diet became less obese and developed less insulin resistance than rodents fed a high-sugar, high-fat low-fiber diet.
The researchers then performed the experiment again, this time with mice genetically modified to be unable to produce glucose in their intestines. In the genetically modified mice, a high-fiber diet offered no protection against obesity or diabetes; mice on the high-fiber diet became just as fat as mice on the low-fiber diet.
These findings not only help increase scientific understanding of the importance of dietary fiber but also highlight the important role played by healthy, naturally occurring intestinal flora. They also demonstrate the key role that the intestine plays in regulating the body's glucose levels.
According to the 2011 research review, increasing your fiber intake is one of the easiest ways to combat the negative effects of a Western diet. In order to avoid unpleasant digestive side effects, fiber intake is best increased gradually and should be spread across all meals and snacks eaten during the course of the day.
Sources for this article include:
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