Posted on 03/02/2010 2:43:08 PM PST by decimon
URBANA – A new University of Illinois study touts the benefits of soluble fiber—found in oats, apples, and nuts, for starters—saying that it reduces the inflammation associated with obesity-related diseases and strengthens the immune system.
"Soluble fiber changes the personality of immune cells—they go from being pro-inflammatory, angry cells to anti-inflammatory, healing cells that help us recover faster from infection," said Gregory Freund, a professor in the U of I's College of Medicine and a faculty member in the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences' Division of Nutritional Sciences.
This happens because soluble fiber causes increased production of an anti-inflammatory protein called interleukin-4, he said.
The study will appear in the May 2010 issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity and is available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08891591.
In the experiment, laboratory mice consumed low-fat diets that were identical except that they contained either soluble or insoluble fiber. After six weeks on the diet, the animals had distinctly different responses when the scientists induced illness by introducing a substance (lipopolysaccharide) that causes the body to mimic a bacterial infection.
"Two hours after lipopolysaccharide injection, the mice fed soluble fiber were only half as sick as the other group, and they recovered 50 percent sooner. And the differences between the groups continued to be pronounced all the way out to 24 hours," said Christina Sherry, who also worked on the study.
"In only six weeks, these animals had profound, positive changes in their immune systems," she said.
Now Freund has a new question: Could soluble fiber offset some of the negative effects of a high-fat diet, essentially immunizing obese persons against the harmful effects of fat?
Scientists have long known that obesity is linked to inflammatory conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Yet, in a recent study, the U of I scientists demonstrated that fat tissue produces hormones that appear to compensate for this inflammation. "There are significant anti-inflammatory components in fat tissue and, if they were strategically unleashed, they could potentially protect obese people from further inflammatory insults, such as a heart attack or stroke. In obese animals, you can see the body compensating in an effort to protect itself," he said.
Not all fat is bad, the researcher noted. The Mediterranean diet, which receives high marks for its health benefits, includes such foods as olive oil; salmon, tuna, sardines, and trout, which contain important omega-3 and -6 fatty acids; and plant sources of fat, such as flaxseed.
"Now we'd like to find a way to keep some of the anti-inflammatory, positive effects that develop over time with a high-fat diet while reducing that diet's negative effects, such as high blood glucose and high triglycerides. It's possible that supplementing a high-fat diet with soluble fiber could do that, even delaying the onset of diabetes," he said.
This study is one of the first to provide two valuable lessons, said Sherry. The first, already noted, is that soluble fiber has direct anti-inflammatory effects and builds up the immune system. The second is that the amount of soluble fiber necessary to achieve these health benefits is a reasonable, not a pharmacological, amount.
The recommended daily dietary recommendation is 28 to 35 grams of total fiber, but most of the FDA's health claims are for insoluble fiber, and that's where things get a bit complicated, she said.
"Not all fiber is created equal, although you wouldn't know that by reading nutrition labels," said Sherry. "Most manufacturers don't tell you how much of each type of fiber a food contains, and we think it's important that this information be included on a product's packaging."
Good sources of soluble fiber are oat bran, barley, nuts, seeds, lentils, citrus fruits, apples, strawberries, and carrots. "We used a citrus-based pectin in our study," Sherry said.
Insoluble fiber, found in whole wheat and whole-grain products, wheat bran, and green, leafy vegetables, is also valuable for providing bulk and helping food move through the digestive system, but it doesn't provide the boost to the immune system that soluble fiber provides.
###
Co-authors are Stephanie S. Kim, Ryan N. Dilger, Laura L. Bauer, Morgan L. Moon, Richard I. Tapping, George C. Fahey Jr., and Kelly A. Tappenden, all from the U of I. Sherry is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the USDA among others.
Anger management ping.
I’ve got my MacBook Pro ready and...oh, you mean that apple’.
I must be eating the wrong apples....
Quaker Oats High fiber instant oatmeal has 8 grams of soluble fiber per pack.
Adam ate apples and look what happened to him
I bought a high end designer apple at Aldis the other day, took a bite or two and out it down and forgot about it.
The next day the white part had not turned brown, I thought that was weird, so I let the experiment continue, it's just a little off white now 3 days later.
What's up with that, low levels of antioxidants?
Every day...day after day...Is this news?? Please....Enough...
You sure it wasn’t a wax or plastic apple? ;^)
Imagine how bad off you’d be if you hadn’t eaten those apples.
It wasn't GALA, or PINK LADY, but it was in that ballpark range.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks decimon. This is obviously Eurocentric racist propaganda. ;') |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Stupid article didn’t say which type of nuts. Almonds are good for B 6, apples for their pectin and roughage. Oatmeal is good source of fiber. Not all nuts provide the same health benefits. And it didn’t say how many you had to eat per day. Nuts are high calorie.
It would seem, Suh, that your view is less than unanimous.
You can lead a squirrel to an acorn but you can't make it do a web search.
This is but a medical news article. The rest is up to you.
How about acorns?
An interesting water soluble fiber is guar gum. It is a tasteless white powder from the guar bean, and is used in a lot of processed dry foods to keep them from clumping. However, it has an interesting secret.
Guar gum binds to bile. When the stomach produces acid, bile is used to neutralize the acid. Then later, in the small intestines, much of the bile is reabsorbed and recycled. Unless it is bound up with something that prevents its reabsorption.
So why would somebody want to bind up their bile so that it is flushed out of their system? Two reasons.
The first is that one of the primary components of bile is cholesterol. The body produces most of the cholesterol we use, and we get extra in our diets. But it is common that we have too much, for which many people take statin drugs, such as Lipitor and Crestor.
If you flush it out of your body, however, your body has to use up its extra cholesterol to replace its store of bile. Over a short period of time, just once a week or so for a month, blood cholesterol levels can be dropped a lot.
The other reason is that as the body recycles the bile, it also recycles some contaminants, such as some metals, that it would be much better to flush out of our bodies. So even taking one dose of Guar Gum might make up for years of slowly absorbing some real nasty contaminants.
Guar gum can be purchased on the Internet, but not as a supplement, only as a food additive.
I’ve no idea if it has any other effect on the immune system.
It gave me the runs. :-(
Back to the drawing board.
Cheers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.