Liping Zhao professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences

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Photography: 
Jeffery Heckman

Nutritionists have long promoted the benefits of a high-fiber diet. A diet of whole grains and traditional Chinese medicinal foods high in fiber (such as oats, white and red beans, yellow corn, yams, and lotus seed) and prebiotics can help people with type 2 diabetes because it promotes the growth of short-chain fatty acid-producing gut bacteria, leading to increased insulin production and lower blood glucose levels. A six-year study, published in Science, “lays the foundation and opens the possibility that fibers targeting this group of gut bacteria could eventually become a major part of your diet and your treatment,” says Liping Zhao, the study’s lead author and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.