The Best Kind Of Fiber For Overall Health?

The Fiber Of Good Health

We’ve written before about how most people in industrialized nations in general, and N. America in particular, do not get nearly enough fiber:

Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Fiber (And How To Fix It)

Fiber’s important for many aspects of health, not least of all the heart:

What Matters Most For Your Heart? Eat More (Of This) For Lower Blood Pressure

As well, of course, as being critical for gut health:

Gut Health 101: Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)

But is all fiber “prebiotic fiber”, and/or are some better than others?

Beta-glucan

A recent study (it’s a mouse study, but promising in its applicability for humans) examined the health impacts of 5 different fiber types:

• pectin
• β-glucan
• wheat dextrin
• resistant starch
• cellulose (control)

As for health metrics, they measured:

• body weight
• adiposity
• indirect calorimetry
• glucose tolerance
• gut microbiota
• metabolites thereof
  

What they found was…

❝Only β-glucan supplementation during HFD-feeding decreased adiposity and body weight gain and improved glucose tolerance compared with HFD-cellulose, whereas all other fibers had no effect. This was associated with increased energy expenditure and locomotor activity in mice compared with HFD-cellulose.

All fibers supplemented into an HFD uniquely shifted the intestinal microbiota and cecal short-chain fatty acids; however, only β-glucan supplementation increased cecal butyrate concentrations. Lastly, all fibers altered the small-intestinal microbiota and portal bile acid composition. ❞

~ Dr. Elizabeth Howard et al.

If you’d like to read more, the study itself is here:

Impact of Plant-Based Dietary Fibers on Metabolic Homeostasis in High-Fat Diet Mice via Alterations in the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites

If you’d like to read less, the short version is that they are all good but β-glucan scored best in several metrics.

It also acts indirectly as a GLP-1 agonist, by the way:

The right fiber may help you lose weight

You may be wondering: what is β-glucan found in?

It’s found in many (non-animal product) foods, but oats, barley, mushrooms, and yeasts are all good sources.

Is it available as a supplement?

More or less; there are supplements that contain it generously, here’s an example product on Amazon, a cordyceps extract, of which >30% is β-glucan.

As an aside, cordyceps itself has many other healthful properties too:

Cordyceps: Friend Or Foe? ← the answer is, it depends! If you’re human, it’s a friend.

Enjoy!