Keep Your Energy Steady: How Barley β-Glucan Tames Blood Sugar Spikes After Meals

Barley beta glucan helps keep your energy levels steadier by preventing big spikes and crashes in blood sugar after meals. It does this in a few ways:

· Slows digestion: Barley beta-glucan is known to form gels with other nutrients, thereby increasing the viscosity of the contents of the digestive tract. This slows down how fast the stomach empties and how quickly carbs are absorbed, so blood sugar rises more gradually instead of all at once. The thicker (higher quality) the beta glucan, the stronger this effect.

· Feeds good gut bacteria: Once it reaches the large intestine, beta glucan is broken down by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These compounds trigger hormones (like GLP-1 and PYY) that improve how your body uses insulin, help control appetite, and keep energy more stable.

· The “second meal effect”: Eating beta glucan at one meal can even help keep blood sugar more stable at the next meal.

Studies in healthy adults show that foods with more barley beta glucan to lower blood sugar spikes and steadier energy, whether the food is sweetened or not.

In summary, barley beta glucan helps maintain steady energy by slowing down carb absorption, supporting healthy gut bacteria, and improving how the body handles blood sugar.

-Dr. Diana Rucker

References:

High Β-Glucan Whole Grain Barley Reduces Postprandial Glycemic Response in Healthy Adults-Part One of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Kellogg JA, Monsivais P, Murphy KM, Perrigue MM.

Nutrients. 2025;17(3):430. Barley Β-Glucan Improves Metabolic Condition via Short-Chain Fatty Acids Produced by Gut Microbial Fermentation in High Fat Diet Fed Mice. Miyamoto J, Watanabe K, Taira S, et al. PloS One. 2018;13(4) A Single Administration of Barley Β-Glucan and Arabinoxylan Extracts Reduces Blood Glucose Levels at the Second Meal via Intestinal Fermentation. Mio K, Togo-Ohno M, Tadenuma N, et al. Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry. 2022;87(1):99-10