Fiber Fights Fat

Visceral fat, the fat deep in the belly surrounding vital organs, can be dangerous to overall health.

January 21, 2012 by Robert Goldman MD, PhD in Latest, Lose Fat, Nutrition
Visceral fat, the fat deep in the belly surrounding vital organs, can be dangerous to overall health. Kristen Hairston, from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and colleagues urge that the way to reduce visceral fat is simple: Eat more soluble fiber from vegetables, fruit and beans, and engage in moderate activity.

The team completed a longitudinal study involving 1,114 men and women that examined whether lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise frequency, were associated with a five-year change in abdominal fat, with CT scans (to measure fat) administered at the study’s start and conclusion. The researchers found that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber eaten per day, visceral fat was reduced by 3.7 percent over five years.

Factoring that with the observation that increased moderate activity led to a 7.4 percent decrease in the rate of visceral fat accumulation over the same time period, they reported that soluble fiber intake and increased physical activity “were related to decreased [visceral adipose tissue] accumulation over five years.”

Hairston, K.G., et al. (2011). Lifestyle factors and five-year abdominal fat accumulation in a minority cohort: The IRAS family study. Obesity. In press.

—Dr. Bob Goldman
Worldhealth.net: Global Resource for Anti-Aging Medicine

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