A diet including larger amounts of dietary fiber and prebiotics is necessary to promote a healthy microbiota. Prof. Raylene Reimer from the University of Calgary emphasizes that prevention of obesity and metabolic diseases needs to start early in the life span, as early as in pregnancy and infancy.

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World Health Organisation (2016) Obesity Fact Sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/

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Perez-Cornago A, Martinez-Gonzalez MA, Ruiz-Canela M et al. (2015) Prebiotic consumption and the incidence of overweight in a Mediterranean cohort: The Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra Project. Am J Clin Nutr 102(6): 1554–1562. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26561624

Pedersen C, Lefevre S, Peters V et al. (2013) Gut hormone release and appetite regulation in healthy non-obese participants following oligofructose intake. A dose-escalation study. Appetite 66: 44–53. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23474087

Paul HA, Bomhof MR, Vogel HJ et al. (2016) Diet-induced changes in maternal gut microbiota and metabolomic profiles influence programming of offspring obesity risk in rats. Sci Rep 6: 20683. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26868870

Parnell JA, Klancic T, Reimer RA (2017) Oligofructose decreases serum lipopolysaccharide and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in adults with overweight/obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring) 25(3): 510–513. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28229548

Parnell JA, Reimer RA (2009) Weight loss during oligofructose supplementation is associated with decreased ghrelin and increased peptide YY in overweight and obese adults. Am J Clin Nutr 89(6): 1751–1759. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3827013/pdf/nihms3657.pdf

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2017): Obesity Update. http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Obesity-Update-2017.pdf