It was found in a laboratory test that soluble fiber could treat illness.

During the test, mice was given low-fat diets, some part containing either soluble or insoluble fiber. After being on the diet for six weeks, the animals had distinctly different responses when the scientists induced illness that causes the body to mimic a bacterial infection by introducing a substance (lipopolysaccharide).

Christina Sherry, who worked on the study said, “Two hours after lipopolysaccharide injection, the mice fed soluble fibre were only half as sick as the other group, and they recovered 50 per cent sooner. And the differences between the groups continued to be pronounced all the way out to 24 hours.”

Following these findings, a question arises that could soluble fibre offset some of the negative effects of a high-fat diet?

It has been believed that obesity causes inflammatory conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

The researcher noted, “Now we'd like to find a way to keep some of the anti-inflammatory, positive effects that develop over time with a high-fat diet while reducing that diet's negative effects, such as high blood glucose and high triglycerides. It's possible that supplementing a high-fat diet with soluble fiber could do that, even delaying the onset of diabetes.”