Do you want to lose weight? Eat more fiber!

How fiber suppresses appetite

Kirill Stasevich, CompulentaWe already know that dietary fiber, or fiber, protects us from obesity and diabetes, and the more we eat fiber-rich foods (i.e. vegetables and fruits), the less risk of gaining excess weight, etc. The intestine itself cannot break down fiber, needing the help of microflora; it is believed that it is the activity of microflora, provoked by fiber, just serves to improve metabolism.

But how exactly does dietary fiber work in the gut? What kind of biochemical reactions occur there and how do they affect health? We have only started to learn about all this now. Not so long ago, KL reported on a study in which it was possible to partially understand the antidiabetic properties of fiber: it turned out that dietary fibers turn into fatty acids that are involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism. And now, after that work, another one is coming out, in which experts from Imperial College London (UK) describe how fiber suppresses appetite.

And again, the whole thing turned out to be the acids that appear during microbial digestion of fibers. Several types of these acids are formed, and the role of some (for example, propionic or butyric) has been well studied. But at the same time, researchers have long ignored the acetic acid formed from fiber, although it is produced in the intestine more than all the others.

To find out whether acetic acid is involved in the regulation of appetite, Gary Frost and his colleagues used a radioactive carbon isotope to trace the fate of acid molecules in the mouse body. The main part of acetic acid undergoes further transformations in the intestines and liver, but something is sent to the brain. As the researchers write in Nature Communications (The short-chain fatty acid acetate reduces appetite via a central homeostatic mechanism), 5% of acetic acid got into the hypothalamus, which is known to regulate hunger and eating behavior. The presence of acetate in the intestines reduced appetite in mice.

Drawings from an article in Nature Communications – VM

It is believed that special hormones are used to regulate eating behavior through the hypothalamus, which are formed in the intestine when food is absorbed. It turned out that food – namely fiber – is able to work with the hypothalamus directly, through the product of metabolism – acetic acid.

It is not yet known whether the same thing happens in humans. If so, then to suppress appetite, according to scientists, we need to eat three times more fiber: judging by the mice, the amount that we absorb now is not enough to affect the hypothalamus.

Prepared based on the materials of The Scientist: Another Way Fiber Is Filling.

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