Scientific Study Proves Prebiotic Fiber Helps Type II Diabetes
Hey everyone,
Today we want to discuss some new evidence on gut health and its connection to an unfortunately common disease for millions of adults, type II diabetes.
Type II diabetes is impacted by our diets is many different ways, but let’s focus on one extremely important piece of the puzzle, the impact of including fibrous non-digestible carbohydrates in your diet.
Some fibrous foods we eat are able to miss being digested in the small intestine (hence the name non-digestible) and move to the large intestine where they are broken down and converted into what are called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
The types of fibers that are able to be converted into SCFAs are classified as prebiotics (and you all know how important we here at Uplift Food think probiotics are!).
At Uplift Food we immediately think of resistant starch as the key type of prebiotic that leads to SCFA production (that's the green banana flour in the Daily Uplifter, or the tapioca fiber we use in our new snack range).
It has been found that people with type II diabetes have a deficiency in SCFAs and so researchers wanted to investigate whether a diet high in fiber could promote greater SCFA production in the gut environment and help in the management of type II diabetes.
In the study, participants with diagnosed Type II Diabetes were randomly allocated into two groups. The control group received education and recommendations for their diet while the other group received a diet which included fibrous non-digestible carbohydrates.
To see if any of the participants showed adequate control of their blood sugar levels, the researchers observed their levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) from 28 days onwards.
At the end of the study, 89% of participants in the high-fibre diet group showed adequate control of their blood sugar levels (HbA1c < 7%) compared to 50% in the control group.
Another important finding was compared to the control group, those eating a diet higher in fiber had a greater increase in SCFAs being produced and also an increase in their insulin secretion levels, which are important for keeping blood sugar levels stable.
To read a little more on these and other findings from this study, see this link.
You might be thinking this all sounds really fantastic, but how do I include more fibrous non-digestible carbohydrates into my day-to-day diet?
If your diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, managing your blood sugar levels with what you are eating is super important, but the reality is, this is actually really relatable evidence for anyone looking to make some positive changes to their diet because including fiber not only provides your gut with the good stuff it needs to help it produce SCFAs, but it also helps you feel fuller for longer, promotes good bowel health and ties into promoting a positive gut-brain connection!
We mentioned earlier how our go-to source of beneficial, fibrous and non-digestible carbohydrates are the abundance of resistant starch rich ingredients incorporated into our products such as green banana flour in the Daily Uplifter powder as well as tapioca fiber resistant starch in our new snack range.
It gives your diet a boost of resistant starch type prebiotics, assists in feeding your gut bacteria, and promotes SCFA production just as found in this new study!
Type II Diabetes is a huge health topic and we hope that you found this gut / diabetes connection interesting, and that we can continue to bring you more research on this topic, stay tuned!
In good gut health,
Team Uplifters!