Research
Hormonal
Increasing dietary fibre intake significantly improves glycaemic control, reducing HbA1c by a mean difference of -2.00 mmol/mol and fasting plasma glucose by -0.56 mmol/L in adults with diabetes.
If you have diabetes, increasing your fibre intake can help lower your HbA1c and fasting blood sugar. You do not need to cut out carbohydrates; instead, choose carbohydrate sources that are high in fibre, such as whole grains and vegetables.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Increased fibre intakes reduced glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c; mean difference [MD] −2.00 mmol/mol, 95% CI −3.30 to −0.71 from 33 trials), fasting plasma glucose (MD −0.56 mmol/L, 95% CI −0.73 to −0.38 from 34 trials)
Why this rating
High quality evidence per GRADE due to dose response, despite high heterogeneity in trials.
Source
Dietary fibre and whole grains in diabetes management: Systematic review and meta-analyses
Andrew Reynolds et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2020
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003053
Meta-analysis · 44 studiesCited 537×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Increasing daily dietary fibre intake to 35 grams (or by 15 grams from baseline) significantly reduces all-cause mortality, improves glycaemic control (HbA1c), and lowers cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with prediabetes or diabetes.Good
- Higher dietary fibre intake reduces body weight, BMI, and waist circumference, and improves blood lipid profiles (total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides) in adults with diabetes.Moderate
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