Prebiotic Dietary Fibers for Weight Management

Abstract

While all prebiotics are accepted as dietary fibers, not all dietary fibers are accepted as prebiotics. Fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides are significant prebiotic dietary fibers related with the regulation of weight management. They, selectively stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, thus help to modulate gut microbiota. Since bifiodobacteria population are responsible for energy scavenging they are playing a vital role in the weight management. In addition, prebiotics fermented to short chain fatty acids by gut microbiota, whose presence in the large intestine is responsible for many of the metabolic effects and prevent metabolic diseases such as obesity. Short chain fatty acids via different mechanisms also stimulate satiety hormones such as GLP-1 and PYY, and shift glucose and lipid metabolism. To conclude, prebiotic dietary fibers beneficially impact the gut microbiota thus can be effective on regulation of weight management. There is a need for further clinical trials to explain more comprehensively the effects of dietary prebiotics on weight management.