Here’s the lowdown on dietary fiber and why konjac glucomannan is good for you
08/05/2020 / By Skye Anderson / Comments
Here’s the lowdown on dietary fiber and why konjac glucomannan is good for you

Konjac and glucomannan may sound unfamiliar to you, but these two are worth learning more about because they can make a big difference when it comes to your health.

Here’s why: According to a study published early this year, konjac glucomannan, a soluble dietary fiber extracted from the roots of elephant yam, has powerful natural properties that can save your liver and kidneys from the damaging effects of a high-fat diet and Type 2 diabetes.

High-fat diet and diabetes: What’s the connection?

Thanks to the large volume of studies done on the subject of dietary fats, we now know that not all fats are bad. In fact, there are certain fats that we can’t live without. These are the healthy fats, sometimes referred to by their formal names: unsaturated (broad term) or monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. In case you’re wondering, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from fish, nuts and seeds identify as polyunsaturated fats. Omega-9s are monounsaturated fats.

The bad fats, on the other hand, can be found in fat cuts of meat and processed goods and are commonly referred to as saturated fats and trans fats. Although trans fatty acids are also unsaturated fats, they are considered the worst type of fat to eat because they raise your bad cholesterol levels. Saturated fats do exactly the same thing, but they also raise your good cholesterol levels, which makes them only half as bad. Nevertheless, saturated fats are the type of fats that stay solid even at room temperature, so you’d want to eat less of these to stay healthy. Limit them to 10 percent of your daily calories, advise nutrition experts.

Diets that are rich in bad fats lead to a lot of health problems. Heart disease, for instance, is caused by high bad cholesterol levels. Bad cholesterol makes up most of the fat deposits that build up in the arteries and trigger heart attacks. And let’s not forget what eating fatty foods inevitably does: make you gain weight. Scientists have been linking weight gain and obesity to insulin resistance for years, and a large body of scientific evidence supports this. Insulin resistance is the precursor to diabetes and refers to when your cells no longer absorb sugar (glucose) despite the presence of insulin.

According to researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, two of the main contributors to insulin resistance are too much abdominal fat and excess fat deposits in the liver. These two are unavoidable consequences of a high-fat diet and are also known to trigger inflammation. Inflammation sets off many different processes inside the body, including the generation of proteins that interfere with insulin signaling. This particular event results in the cells of the body becoming less responsive to insulin and blood sugar rising. Eventually, the pancreas’s ability to produce insulin also suffers, leading to diabetes.

The importance of dietary fiber

Nutrition experts often stress the importance of eating fiber-rich foods to keep your digestive system healthy. As an indigestible component of plant-based foods — meaning the enzymes in our stomach can’t digest it — dietary fiber passes through our digestive tract intact; but on its way out, it flushes out unwanted substances like cholesterol and carcinogens and gives our gut a good sweep.

How dietary fiber behaves in the stomach depends on its chemistry. There’s fiber that’s soluble in water and fiber that’s insoluble. Soluble fiber turns into a gel-like substance when it dissolves in water. This gel-like substance does two notable things: One, it binds to cholesterol particles, preventing them from entering the bloodstream; and two, it slows down the passage of food through the intestine and the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar. So if you eat soluble fiber regularly, you’ll be able to keep your blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels healthy.

Insoluble fiber, which is made of the same substance as plant cell walls, is bulkier than soluble fiber, so it is unaffected by water. This complex carbohydrate offers a different set of benefits, which mainly impacts your digestive system. Unlike soluble fiber, insoluble fiber speeds up digestion by easing the movement of food through the gut. It also absorbs fluid and sticks to other digestion products that are bound to be processed into waste. These actions help prevent constipation and can save you from more serious digestive issues, such as intestinal blockage and colon cancer.

Many plant-based foods contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. But if you’re looking for individual sources for each, you can get soluble fiber from beans (black, lima and kidney), fruits (avocados and apricots), nuts (hazelnuts), vegetables (Brussels sprouts, carrots and broccoli), seeds (flaxseed and sunflower) and whole grains (oats and barley). Insoluble fiber can be found in dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, Swiss chard), green peas, some nuts (almonds and pine nuts) and beans (soybeans and pinto), amaranth seeds, blackberries and prunes.

How konjac glucomannan can prevent diabetes

Konjac, or elephant yam, is a plant that’s widely cultivated in Asia. It is known for its starchy corm —  the tuber-like part of the stem that grows underground — which is used to make noodles and natural food additives (i.e., emulsifiers and thickeners). The corm of konjac is a great source of glucomannan, a soluble fiber whose properties are said to promote weight loss. Because of this, glucomannan is often extracted from konjac and used to make weight loss supplements.

But konjac glucomannan can also be used to fight diabetes. According to Chinese researchers, many studies have reported its anti-diabetic effects, although they failed to explore how konjac glucomannan operates inside the body to achieve these. To address this, they gave rats with high-fat diet-induced diabetes different doses of konjac glucomannan for 28 days. At the end of their experiment, they found that the fiber at 40, 80 and 120 mg/kg body weight lowered the blood glucose and insulin levels of the animals.

The researchers also found other clues as to how konjac glucomannan works. For instance, they observed that at a medium dose of 80 mg/kg, konjac glucomannan increased the blood antioxidant levels of diabetic rats by promoting the activity of Nrf2, a protein that boosts the body’s resistance to oxidative stress. The fiber also decreased the levels of C-reactive protein, a known marker of inflammation, and interfered with the activity of NF-kB, a protein that activates inflammatory immune cells.

When the researchers looked at the livers and kidneys of the diabetic rats, they found that konjac glucomannan (medium-dose) managed to reverse the structural impairment caused by diabetes to these organs. They attributed this additional benefit to konjac glucomannan’s ability to suppress inflammation and protect against oxidative stress. Because of their findings, the researchers believe that konjac glucomannan can benefit healthy individuals by reducing their risk of diabetes, and diabetics by reducing the severity of their condition.

Sources:

ScienceDirect.com

MayoClinic.org

HelpGuide.org 1

HelpGuide.org 2

AtlasBiomed.com

Care.DiabetesJournals.org

Diabetes.co.uk 1

Diabetes.co.uk 2

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 1

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 2

ScientificAmerican.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

VeryWellHealth.com

LiveScience.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

Healthline.com 1

Healthline.com 2 

TasteOfHome.com

EatingWell.com

Nature.com

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