[Dietary fiber and OGTT: blood sugar variations after administration of a new purified glucomannane].

After having stressed the importance of fibres in the nutritional field, pointing out the inverse relationship between vegetal fibres consumption in various populations and diffusion of many diseases of the so-called "industrialized" societies (such as obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemias, atherosclerosis, cholelithiasis, cancer of the colon, etc.), the Authors report their experiment on a new experimental product based on glucomannane purified (PRL). The present study was carried out on 24 obese subjects (5 males and 19 females). The patients, normoglycemics in their basic condition, were submitted to OGTT with 75 g of glucose in the morning before eating and were subdivided into two groups, the first (Group A) characterized by the sequence OGTT + placebo; after a few days, by another OGTT + experimental product; the second characterized by the inverse sequence. Four tablets (glucomannane purified 5,2 g) and four tablets of placebo was the posology employed. The evaluation of the possible action of the product in reducing or slowing down the intestinal absorption of glucose was the aim of the research. The results obtained show that the administration of the product under study has led to a sharp decrease of the average glycemic values with variations per cent ranging from 13% to 16% in Group A, from 10% to 11% in Group B and from 7% to 12% in the two groups considered on the whole. In conclusion, the Authors wish an increased diffusion of dietary fibres and particularly of the glucomannanes in all those dysmetabolic forms having at their bases an unbalanced, hypercaloric alimentation, rich in refined aliments and poor in fibres.