Inulin is a naturally occurring plant fibre with prebiotic properties, which is a fancy way to say it helps to support the growth of our healthy gut bacteria.
Owing to this unique property, inulin is often sold in supplemental form.
In fact, there are many human experimental studies demonstarting that inulin supplementation meaningfully improves the quantity of the beneficial Bifidobacterium family of bacteria in the human digestive tract.
The gut microbiome plays an important role in blood sugar regulation and scientists are increasingly aware that people living with diabetes may be more likely to have imbalances in their gut microbiome.
Findings like these may partially explain why inulin supplementation has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on blood sugar levels in those living with pre and type 2 diabetes.
Which is indeed the focal point of today’s content, presented in collaboration with Pascoe Canada.
Let’s get to the good stuff!
Inulin For Pre & Type 2 Diabetes – The Evidence
In 2019, The Journal Of Translational Medicine conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis including a total of 33 randomized controlled trials looking at the effects of inulin supplementation on blood sugar control.
Here’s what they found:
1. High Quality Evidence that inulin supplementation can lower fasting blood glucose levels and A1C in people living with pre or type 2 diabetes
2. Lower Quality Evidence that inulin supplementation can lower fasting insulin and insulin resistance in people living with pre or type 2 diabetes.
It’s important to note that although the improvements above were statistically significant, they are not as robust as what can be achieved through optimizing diet and physical activity.
The researchers also determined that:
- The Optimal Dose/Duration is 10 grams of inulin per day for a period of at least 6 weeks.
- The Optimal Way to utilize inulin fibre may be in beverage form.
This brings us back today’s content partner Pascoe, and specifically their Markofruct inulin supplement.
Markofruct is an inulin supplement combined with chamomile and consumable as a drinkable tea.
Each box comes with 30 packets of inulin ( 5.6 grams per packet) to be mixed with 250ml of hot water.
As per the recommendations of the meta-analysis discussed in today’s post, the optimal way to utilize this product would be 2x daily over a 6+ week period.
For those eager to try, Pascoe also provided me a voucher code – ANDY10 – which will offer you 10% off your purchases from Pascoe.ca.
Bonus Content – Inulin & Cholesterol Levels
As a little bonus, a 2017 meta-analysis out of the European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition noted that inulin also has the potential to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels and may even raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol specifically in people living with diabetes.
Hope you enjoyed reading this content as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it!
Until next time,
Andy De Santis RD MPH
