Dietary Fibre Enrichment of Wheat Bread and Postprandial Glucose Response in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Crossover Trial
Keywords:
Dietary fibre, Postprandial glucose, Beta-glucan, Resistant starch, Wheat breadAbstract
Background: Wheat bread is a major dietary source of rapidly digestible starch, and fibre enrichment is widely studied for
blunting postprandial glycaemia.
Objective: To synthesise trial evidence on fibre-enriched wheat bread and postprandial glucose response in healthy adults.
Methods: Narrative review of published randomised trials, meta-analyses, and mechanistic studies.
Findings: Beta-glucan gives the most consistent, dose-dependent reductions in glucose area-under-the-curve (up to 55%; ~8%
per gram per meta-analysis); resistant starch reduces area-under-the-curve ~39%; arabinoxylan effects are smaller and
inconsistent; inulin gives modest, dose-correlated reductions (14-16%).
Conclusions: Fibre type, molecular weight, dose, and food matrix jointly determine glycaemic benefit, with beta-glucan and
resistant starch offering the strongest evidence for reformulation.
