Children are battling weight gain and obesity as well as adults. They have fewer options, as pharmaceutical options are much more limited in children. A new pilot study was just published in F1000 Research that lays the groundwork for resistant starch-enriched yogurt to help address this problem. And because it was published by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and funded by NIH, it is very credible.

This particular study was a pilot study and included only four children between the ages of 6 and 14. They consumed 16-24 grams of resistant corn starch mixed into yogurt/day for four weeks. This is far too short and too small to find meaningful changes in weight in the participants, but they measured changes in the microbiota and fermentation-related characteristics.

It is hard to draw too many conclusions from a study with four children, but it is encouraging to see a major and respected research institution investigate resistant starch and its fermentation characteristics in this vulnerable population. We’ll have to keep a look out for the promised follow-up study from Drs. Frank Greenway and Roy Martin and their colleagues in Louisiana.