Weight loss can be a common goal for many people at some point in their lives. For some this might come from a desire to fit into certain old clothes, or feel fitter. However, for others it could be a medical necessity, having reached what could be a dangerous weight.
Whatever the reason, weight loss can be tricky. Various health bodies recommend exercising regularly and eating a healthy balanced diet to achieve this.
Now a study has named a specific breakfast to eat that could help boost weight loss efforts.
Research, published in the Journal of Nutrition, showed that a specific type of fibre found in oats helped prevent overeating and weight gain.
This fibre, called beta-glucan, induced more weight loss than other forms of fibre.
While the study was conducted on mice, researchers believe beta-glucan may be a “promising dietary strategy for metabolic disease” – a group of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes including storing excess fat around the waist.
As part of the study, mice received one of five types of fibre every day for 18 weeks.
These types of fibre included:
- Pectin: A soluble fibre found in fruits.
- Beta-glucan: A soluble fibre found commonly in nature, including cereals such as oats, yeast, mushrooms, and seaweeds.
- Wheat dextrin: a soluble fibre sold over the counter as a fibre supplement.
- Resistant starch: A type of starch that functions similarly to fibre by avoiding digestion and being fermented in the colon.
- Cellulose: an insoluble fibre found in plant cells.
The team measured the animals’ body weight, level of body fat, how much energy they used, and their glucose tolerance.
They also looked at their gut microbiome and the short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) they produced.
It was discovered that all five of the fibre types significantly changed the animals’ gut microbiome and altered the levels of SCFAs that it produced.
But when they looked more specifically at body weight, fat mass, and glucose tolerance, only beta-glucan provided benefits.
They concluded: “These findings demonstrate that beta-glucan consumption is a promising dietary strategy for metabolic disease, possibly via increased energy expenditure through alterations in the gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites in mice.”
This is not the first scientific paper to note the benefits of beta-glucan.
One study, published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition in 2023, noted that it could reduce body weight and waist circumference.
“Most oat and barley foods are typically high in fibre, whole grain, nutrient dense, and satiating, making them natural choices for inclusion in diets that promote weight maintenance,” the study authors wrote.
“Furthermore, there is increasing consistent evidence that oat or barley beta‐glucan intake prevents weight gain and reduces obesity.”
It drew the same conclusion from three existing observational studies and six randomised controlled intervention studies.
The study said: “The ability of beta‐glucan to impact body weight and adiposity measures is biologically plausible as evidenced from animal and human intervention studies that have examined changes in satiety, gastric emptying, gut hormones, and gut microbiota and their metabolites (i.e, SCFAs).
“The physiological mechanisms involve a complex interplay of multiple systems in appetite and energy regulation that are just beginning to be elucidated.”
Beta-glucan has also been linked to reduced cholesterol levels in other studies.
How to get more beta-glucan in your diet
Foods rich in beta-glucan include:
- Oats
- Barley
- Reishi Mushrooms
- Shiitake Mushrooms
- Nutritional yeast
- Seaweed
- Rye bread
- Whole wheat bread