Move Over, Alli?
According to new research, alginate – a viscous fiber extracted from seaweed – reduces fat absorption.
Seaweed to tackle rising tide of obesity
Seaweed could hold the key to tackling obesity after it was found it reduces fat uptake by more than 75 per cent, new research has shown.
Now the team at Newcastle University are adding seaweed fibre to bread to see if they can develop foods that help you lose weight while you eat them.
A team of scientists led by Dr Iain Brownlee and Prof Jeff Pearson have found that dietary fibre in one of the world’s largest commercially-used seaweed could reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body by around 75 per cent.
The Newcastle University team found that Alginate – a natural fibre found in sea kelp – stops the body from absorbing fat better than most anti-obesity treatments currently available over the counter.
Using an artificial gut, they tested the effectiveness of more than 60 different natural fibres by measuring the amount of fat that was digested and absorbed with each treatment.
Presenting their findings today at the American Chemical Society Spring meeting in San Francisco, Dr Brownlee said the next step was to recruit volunteers and study whether the effects they have modelled in the lab can be reproduced in real people, and whether such foods are truly acceptable in a normal diet.
“The aim of this study was to put these products to the test and our initial findings are that alginates significantly reduce fat digestion,” explains Dr Brownlee.
“This suggests that if we can add the natural fibre to products commonly eaten daily – such as bread, biscuits and yoghurts – up to three quarters of the fat contained in that meal could simply pass through the body.
“We have already added the alginate to bread and initial taste tests have been extremely encouraging. Now the next step to to carry out clinical trials to find out how effective they are when eaten as part of a normal diet.”
So much for Alli’s claim to fame. Although the mechanism is different, the end result is the similar: reduced fat digestion/absorption.
For the record, I don’t like the idea of inhibiting the digestion of macronutrients… fat is more than just a source of calories, after all. Certain fatty foods provide essential fatty acids, not to mention that dietary fat also assists in the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients. Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing Alli product sales flattened by a simple, inexpensive food additive. There would be some satisfaction in that. 😉
March 21, 2010
Move Over, Alli? – http://blog.ultimatefatburner.com/2010/0…
March 22, 2010
I sure would not want the fat to not be absorbed from the foods I eat. The “good fats” are essential.
I guess I could see if a person is eating more of the “bad fats” this could be beneficial. Any attempt to stop the obesity rate increase would be great.
The bigger problem would be getting people to eat it. I can hear my wife now.”That has seaweed in it, yuck”.
March 22, 2010
I guess the question that immediately comes to mind has to do with what you guys had to say about Alli’s side effects. “Prepare yourself for some unpleasantness. Because the fat in a meal does not get absorbed, it has to leave your body somehow — and that’s through the stool. When taken with a high fat meal, possible side effects include bloating, gas, “oily spotting,” diarrhea, and possibly, “anal leakage.” The best way to reduce these nasty side effects is to limit the amount of fat consumed in any meal — no more than 30% of any meal’s calories should come from fat.
It’s although worth noting that The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group (a non profit advocacy group) does not like Xenical, Alli, or Orlistat at all, claiming they can cause gallstones and pre-cancerous abnormalities. Click here for more information on Alli side effects! Additionally, the FDA is investigating Alli for possible liver damage.
What about Alli’s interactions with other drugs? Alli interacts with both warfarin (it increases its effect) and the antibiotic cyclosporine (it decreases its effect).”
Do we have the same worry if we were to just eat seaweed before a meal?
Is this fat malabsorption caused by the viscosity of the fiber? If so, does something like glucomannan or PGX have a similar effect?
March 23, 2010
There’s not likely to be any liver issues, although drug interactions is a more interesting question: could consuming a bolus of viscous dietary fiber have an impact on the absorption of orally administered medications? GI issues can’t be ruled out either – unless dietary fat is restricted overall as it is with Alli, then there will be a fair amount of unabsorbed fat in the colon. If I had to guess, the fiber will reduce the sort of leakage seen w/Alli, but I can’t say for sure.
So, they’ll have to repeat the process with people. At the very least, it might help folks with GERD – a popular OTC product, Gaviscon, partially relies on alginate for its effectiveness. Viscous fiber is also useful for glucose control and satiety, so even if the fat binding properties are moot as far as actual weight loss is concerned, it would still probably be a better deal than ALLI.
According to the press release, the researchers tested 60 dietary fiber types – apparently alginate was the best. So it’s apparent – in this bit o’ research at least – that there’s some variation in the ability of different dietary fibers to bind fat.