EAT MORE FIBER

“The evidence for the role of fiber in weight control started with so-called ecological studies. These involve comparing population averages. For example, the average Pima Indian in Mexico, eating their traditional high-fiber diet centered around the three sisters—corn, beans, and squash—is normal weight. But the average Pima on US reservations has obesity.”

“In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study, researchers showed that people's metabolism can be boosted within 30 minutes of an infusion into their rectums of short-chain fatty acids. The molecules our gut bacteria make when we feed them fiber. The study used the amounts we'd expect to create ourselves just from eating a fat-fiber diet.”

“Not only did the study participants get an increase in their resting metabolic rate, the amount of calories burned just by existing, but specifically their fat oxidation shot up as well, increasing the amount of fat they were burning by more than 25%. This translates to about an extra third of a pat of butter's worth of fat burned off their body within two hours of the infusion.”

“Researchers in Sweden gave people beans for supper, and by the next morning, after their friendly flora had a chance to eat them too, their satiety hormones like PYY were up, their hunger hormone ghrelin was down, and they reported feeling less hungry. Those who had eaten the fiber-rich food the night before felt fully satiated with about 100 fewer calories at a meal more than 12 hours later.”

“Even though both groups were told to reach the same fiber target, the group whose sole focus was fiber intake ended up eating more than twice as much extra fiber as the multi-component intervention, and surprisingly similarly improved the quality of their diets. So the fiber only group ended up reducing their saturated fat intake as much as the group was explicitly instructed to do so.”