- Researchers have unveiled a potential new strategy for treating obesity and metabolic diseases through dietary intervention.
- By incorporating resistant starch into the diets of individuals with overweight, scientists observed significant weight loss and improvements in insulin sensitivity, highlighting the influential role of the gut microbiome in overall health.
- This research not only underscores the global urgency of addressing obesity but also suggests that modulating the gut microbiome with specific dietary components could offer a promising avenue for preventive and therapeutic measures against metabolic disorders.
Obesity is now recognised as a worldwide health crisis, contributing to global mortality by elevating the risk of metabolic disorders like diabetes and increasing the likelihood of cardiovascular disease.
Losing weight through diet and exercise is an important measure to prevent or reduce obesity.
Research increasingly shows the gut microbiota’s link to how the body handles glucose and fats and also how it affects inflammation.
While fecal microbiota transplantation — which aims to induce the proliferation of “good” gut bacteria — has seen mixed success in promoting a healthy gut, dietary modifications have proven to impact the microbiota positively, suggesting that diet-based approaches, alone or in combination with transplantation, could improve health outcomes.
Resistant starch is not digestible by human-produced amylase enzymes, and acts as a form of dietary fibre.
It passes through the stomach and small intestine undigested, reaching the large intestine or colon, where it is fermented by the gut microbiota.
Studies in rodents have demonstrated that diets high in resistant starch can lead to reduced body fat and improved metabolic health.
In a new study, published in
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