2.2. Health care function of konjac dietary fiber
From the point of view of nutrition, high dietary fiber is an effective nutritional component of konjac, and its nutritional and health care function is to play the role of dietary fiber in regulating nutritional imbalance. Studies have shown that long-term consumption of konjac food has the functions of lowering blood fat, blood sugar, cholesterol, regulating endocrine and preventing obesity, and has a significant auxiliary treatment effect on patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease and diabetes.
2.2. 1, weight loss effect
Amorphophallus konjac dietary fiber has strong swelling power and viscosity toughness, and its expansion coefficient is 80 ~ 100. Give people a feeling of fullness after eating. While fully satisfying people's dietary pleasure, they will not gain weight, and there is no need to deliberately diet. And because of the low calorie, you can control your weight and achieve the goal of losing weight. Konjac dietary fiber can slow down the passage of food from stomach to small intestine and delay the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Because the absorption of monosaccharides is reduced, the synthesis of fatty acids in the body is also reduced, which plays a role in losing weight. Amorphophallus konjac dietary fiber moistens the intestines to relieve constipation, so that some unabsorbed nutrients are discharged with feces, which plays a laxative role and achieves the effect of losing weight. Studies have shown that konjac dietary fiber can dilate capillaries, reduce blood pressure and cholesterol, and is an ideal food to inhibit human obesity.
Japan attaches great importance to the health care function of konjac, and stipulates that primary and secondary school students should have appropriate konjac food in their diet. It is reported that the average person in Japan consumes about 600g of konjac food every day, accounting for 1/4 of the total sales of health food in Japan. They use the "Hymanna" processed by konjac to keep "dieters from starving". Some food vendors in Europe and Japan also promote konjac food with the slogan "A bowl of konjac soup after meals makes you slim and healthy", which shows the importance of konjac dietary fiber. In addition, obese people are easy to induce arteriosclerosis and diabetes because of their high cholesterol and neutral fat content in blood, so eating konjac dietary fiber plays a very important role in avoiding obesity and maintaining health.
2.2.2, laxative effect
The main measure to prevent constipation is to increase the intake of dietary fiber. Dietary fiber absorbs water, increases the amount of feces and improves intestinal flora; Intestinal bacteria can ferment dietary fiber, produce lower fatty acids, stimulate intestinal peristalsis and promote defecation, thus effectively preventing constipation. The digestion of konjac dietary fiber is not in the stomach, but in the intestine, which can promote the physiological peristalsis of the intestine and resist the absorption of water by the small intestine, thus softening the stool, playing the role of relaxing bowels, and quickly discharging the waste poisons deposited on the intestinal wall, so it is known as the "scavenger of the gastrointestinal tract".
Studies have shown that eating konjac can increase the daily wet weight of feces (equivalent to 1g konjac powder weight gain 1 1.4g) and the moisture content of feces, shorten the running time of food in the intestine and the average defecation time, and increase the number of bifidobacteria. Because konjac dietary fiber has strong water-binding ability, it can expand by 80 ~ 100 times by absorbing water, and it is easy to be fermented by intestinal bacteria to produce short-chain fatty acids such as butyric acid, propionic acid and acetic acid, which reduces the pH value of intestinal environment, stimulates intestinal mucosa, promotes intestinal peristalsis, and thus accelerates fecal excretion. Its metabolites can also change the osmotic pressure of intestinal contents, increase the moisture content of feces and change the characteristics of feces, so it has a good laxative effect.
2.2.3, hypolipidemic effect
Konjac dietary fiber can combine with cholesterol in digestive tract, hinder the absorption of neutral fat and cholesterol, effectively inhibit the active transport of bile acid by ileal mucosa, adsorb cholic acid, partially block the intestinal-hepatic circulation of bile acid, thus reducing liver fat (intrahepatic fat), increasing steroid excretion, and finally consuming body fat; Glucomannan can be fermented and decomposed by microorganisms in the colon to produce short-chain fatty acids such as propionic acid, which are absorbed by the human body, thus reducing blood lipids. When the blood lipid reaches the normal level, it does not decrease continuously, which plays a role in regulating lipid metabolism and preventing hyperlipidemia.
The results showed that 5% and 10% konjac could significantly reduce serum cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol in hyperlipidemia rats, and could reverse fatty liver. The hypolipidemic effect of konjac food is not an indirect effect of reducing food intake, but has obvious hypolipidemic effect itself. Foreign nutritionists divide mice into two groups. One group was fed a high-fat food without konjac. The other group added a small amount of konjac flour. Results The cholesterol content of mice fed with konjac flour was 65438±000mg lower than that of the control group. So they came to the conclusion that konjac is the golden key to prevent and treat hypertension and coronary heart disease.
2.2.4, hypoglycemic effect
Konjac dietary fiber has hypoglycemic effect. Through the observation of eating konjac in diabetic patients, fasting blood glucose and postprandial blood glucose decreased significantly, indicating that konjac has a good hypoglycemic effect.
Recent studies have also confirmed that the dietary fiber contained in konjac has a good hypoglycemic effect on diabetic patients. Because of its large molecular weight and high viscosity, it can delay the absorption of glucose and effectively reduce postprandial blood sugar, thus reducing the burden on the pancreas. Konjac food is an ideal food for diabetic patients, which has the functions of lowering blood sugar, improving symptoms, controlling illness and preventing complications.
Adding 3.6g or 7.2g konjac glucomannan to the diet of diabetic patients can reduce serum cholesterol and blood sugar by 1 1.2% and 29% respectively after 90 days. It can greatly reduce insulin and reduce the dosage of other hypoglycemic drugs. Observation shows that eating konjac glucomannan can generally reduce blood sugar by 7.3% and serum insulin by 13% within 30 minutes.
Huang Chengyu et al. studied 72 patients with type II diabetes (including those with impaired glucose tolerance) by adding konjac flour with low protein, low fat, low calorie and high dietary fiber. The results showed that the fasting blood glucose (FBG) and blood glucose (PBG) of subjects after eating konjac food for 30 days and 65 days were significantly lower than those before eating. Glycosylated hemoglobin (GHB) at the end of the test was also significantly lower than that before the test. Liu Hong observed the effect of konjac glucomannan on blood sugar in diabetic mice by establishing alloxan diabetic model in mice. The results show that konjac glucomannan has obvious hypoglycemic effect on alloxan-induced diabetic mice and can reduce the water consumption of diabetic mice.
2.2.5, anticancer effect
Amorphophallus konjac glucomannan forms a thermally irreversible gel after water absorption and swelling. After konjac gel enters the human intestine, it forms semi-permeable membranes with different sizes and adheres to the intestinal wall, which can block the invasion of harmful substances including carcinogens and play the role of anti-cancer and anti-cancer protective layer.
Konjac refined powder can significantly reduce the incidence of lung cancer and the malignant rate of tumor. Amorphophallus konjac can change the ecological environment of intestinal flora, showing that anaerobic bacteria represented by Bifidobacterium are dominant, its living bacteria have obvious immune enhancement effect, and dead bacteria have obvious anti-tumor activity.