This carb cures cravings!

Scientists the internet rave about a secret-ingredient 'breakfast cake' helping folks lose up to 12 lbs a week

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Suddenly, everyone is abuzz about a tiny fiber with massive benefits. Called beta-glucan, scientists say it can help heal wounds, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, prevent colds, fight diabetes and COVID, kill cancer cells and much more. Meanwhile, bloggers rave that a beta-glucan-rich breakfast-particularly the internet's famous baked oats (bottom right)-"tastes like cake" and "kills all hunger and cravings for 6 hours." Skeptical? Consider this: One study found a just-right daily dose of oats, the richest source of beta-glucan, delivers enough of the fiber to help us lose weight 672% faster than normal. Readers testing the trick even report melting up to 12 pounds a week without dieting!

What makes beta-glucan so special? Well, once we eat it, it begins rapidly soaking up fluid and becomes what Cleveland Clinic experts call a "thick goo." This goo moves through us, working wonders as it goes. Here are a few examples of what it can do...

Slimming super-fiber magic

• Appetite destruction A recent analysis found a dizzying array of ways beta-glucan shuts off hunger.

First, it absorbs so much liquid, it swells to many times it original size.

"That's why cooked oats have just 350 calories per pound versus 1,500 calories per pound for most cereal. The water and fiber have a bulking effect that magically fill us up with very few calories," says nutrition expert and Plant-Strong author Rip Esselstyn.

The satisfaction lasts too. Because beta-glucan 'gums up' and slows down digestion. "Food lingers in your system and keeps you full for hours." At the same time, the gel flips biochemical switches that lower hunger hormones by about 42%. No wonder one study found a beta-glucan-rich meal makes us want up to 1,000 fewer calories for 24 hours after we eat it.