A randomized controlled trial: the effect of inulin on weight management and ectopic fat in subjects with prediabetes

What this study found

Inulin produced better weight maintenance and greater reductions in ectopic fat than the cellulose control. At week 18, weight change was -2.3 ± 0.5% with inulin versus -0.6 ± 0.4% with cellulose (p = 0.012), and body fat percent fell more with inulin at both week 9 (-2.8 ± 0.4% vs -1.2 ± 0.4%, p < 0.01) and week 18 (-3.7 ± 0.6% vs -1.1 ± 0.6%, p = 0.01). Intrahepatic lipid decreased more with inulin at week 9 (-9.6 ± 2.8% vs -0.5 ± 2.7%, p < 0.04) and week 18 (-10.0 ± 2.6% vs -2.3 ± 2.5%, p = 0.02), and intramyocellular lipid also favored inulin at both time points. The intervention also…

Study & population

Randomized, 1:1 controlled trial in overweight adults with prediabetes recruited from primary care in the United Kingdom.

Intervention

Oral inulin was given as 10 g sachets taken three times daily with food or drink, with the dose escalated by 10 g/day every 2 weeks to reach 30 g/day; by week 5 of the 9-week weight-loss phase, all participants were taking 30 g/day.

Key limitation

Sample size was small, and several key imaging/metabolic analyses were based on very few participants (for example, IHCL and IMCL outcomes).

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