Eating a certain 5p food for breakfast daily could help you lose weight, according to research. Studies have shown that the simple oat could aid efforts to shed the pounds. And one study from this year even suggests that oats could have a similar effect on the body to semaglutide, a drug that can lead to effective weight loss.
This is due to a type of soluble fibre found in oats called beta-glucan, which is known to slow the passage of food as it travels through your intestines - leaving you feeling fuller for longer. Research, published in the Journal of Nutrition earlier this year, looked at the impact of beta-glucan on our gut microbiome. As part of the study, mice were fed on high-fat, high-sugar diets, and those supplemented with 10 percent beta-glucan showed significantly less weight gain, reduced fat mass, higher retention of lean mass, improved insulin sensitivity and better blood sugar levels.
It also found that when gut bacteria interact with beta-glucan it produces a metabolite called butyrate. Butyrate can induce the release of gut peptides, or messengers that regulate the functions of the gut, such as the glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1. Semaglutide, which is also known as weight loss drug Wegovy or type 2 diabetes drugs Ozempic, is a type of GLP-1 receptor agonist - which works to mimic naturally occurring GLP-1, thus leading to weight loss.
But a major difference between naturally occurring GLP-1 compared to semaglutide is its rapid degradation near the intes.
