Fiber in the treatment of obesity and its comorbidities

: A considerable part of the health-care significance of obesity lies in its co-morbidity. Obesity is associated with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia, representing both individually and when taken together risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the main cause of death in industrialized countries. The influence of fibre consumption on body weight, the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease has been shown in important epidemiological surveys, but the mechanisms whereby fibre exercises this protective effect have not been definitively clarified. For the most part, the ability of fibre to slow down the process of absorption of nutrients by modifying the metabolic response to intake, its ability to increase the excretion of biliary acid and the metabolic effects of the short-chain fatty acids produced in the bacterial fermentation of fibre have all focussed the attention of the working hypotheses analyzed in the studies published in the last few years. This review is intended to identify the importance of fibre for the prevention and treatment of obesity and its comorbidities on the basis of the available evidence at present.