Soluble corn fiber, gut bacteria and body fat in obese patients
What it found
In 48 obese patients with low gut bacteria, those who took soluble corn fiber for 28 days had more Bifidobacterium in their stool and lost more body fat than those on the diet alone.
What they found
Studies in people
Bifidobacterium in stool
In the fiber group, Bifidobacterium in stool rose from 8.75 to 9.04 lg CFU/g. In the control group, it fell from 8.46 to 7.96 lg CFU/g.
Body fat and muscle
The fiber group lost body fat, while the control group lost lean mass and skeletal muscle. The fiber group showed only a tendency to lose muscle and lean mass.
Cholesterol levels
Both groups had lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol after the diet. Triglycerides fell significantly only in the control group.
Stool changes
In the fiber group, 14 out of 24 patients moved to a softer, smoother stool type. In the control group, 20 out of 24 saw no change.
Tolerance and taste
Two patients stopped taking the fiber because of loose stools up to 3 times a day. The fiber scored 24 out of 25 for taste, smell, colour, texture and appearance.
What the authors conclude
“Therefore, SCF can be used in dietary therapeutic and preventive nutrition as a source of soluble dietary fiber.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say soluble corn fiber can be used in therapeutic and preventive diets as a source of soluble dietary fiber.
- They say it can be taken directly after dissolving in water, juice or fermented milk drinks.
- They say it can be used as an ingredient in foods enriched with soluble dietary fiber.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see whether adding soluble corn fiber to a low-calorie diet would change the metabolic activity and gut bacteria of obese patients with dysbiosis.
They split 48 obese patients with low Bifidobacterium or Lactobacillus in their stool into two groups. Both groups followed a low-calorie diet for 28 days, and the main group also took 7 g of soluble corn fiber three times a day dissolved in liquid.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a small study of 48 people over 28 days, so it cannot show what happens over longer periods.
- The study cannot show whether the effects were caused by the fiber alone or by the combination with the low-calorie diet.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by This article was prepared based on exploratory analytical work conducted on a contractual basis (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- Solovyeva S.Yu. is an employee of NewBIO LLC, the other authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- Federal Research Centre of Nutrition, Russian Federation
The paper
- Title
- [Evaluation of the effect of dietary soluble corn fiber on metabolic activity and colonic microbiota composition in patients with dysbiosis and obesity]
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Zaletova TS, Feofanova TB, Zainudinov ZM, Zavistyaeva TY, Korotkova TN, Solovyeva SY (2025). [Evaluation of the effect of dietary soluble corn fiber on metabolic activity and colonic microbiota composition in patients with dysbiosis and obesity]. Voprosy pitaniia. doi:10.33029/0042-8833-2025-94-3-91-100Free full textPubMed 40937939DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error