Review

Effects of Dietary Fiber on Obesity and GlucoseIntolerance (Diabetes Mellitus)

Yoshio IKEDA1 and YutakaMORI2

1Department of Preventive Medicine,Jikei University School of Medicine
2Department of 3rd Internal Medicine

Major causes of death in Japanese people areconsisted by cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.These diseases are concerned with highly significantly correlatedwith obesity.
Throughout most of human history, weight gain and fat storage havebeen viewed as signs of health and prosperity. Today, however, asstandards of living, continue to rise weight gain and obesity areposing a growing threat to health of inhabitants from countries allover the world. Furthermore, as obesity is a key risk factor in thenatural history of so-called life style related disease, especiallyglucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus.
So, in this review, we are clarified the role of dietary fibre forprevention of obesity and glucose intolerance showing theexperimental results in OLETF rats. The OLETF rats werecharacterized by obesity, mesenteric fat storage, insulinresistance, delayed insulin response to glucose load, and gradualonset of high concentration dietary fibre food in OLETF rats wereresulted in prevention of body fat storage and amelioration ofinsulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Consequently, thedevelopment of glucose intolerance was delayed by dietary fibresupplementation in this model rats.

Key words: obesity, glucose intolerance, diabetes mellitus, dietaryfiber, OLETF rat

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