Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Disordered eating attitudes and behaviors are common and persistent in patients with obesity. The objective of our work was to evaluate the effect of prebiotic and probiotic supplementation on eating behavior in addition to a weight loss program in an adult population with obesity.

Methods: This is an interventional study involving 45 obese patients consulting the obesity unit of the Institute of Nutrition of Tunis in 2022. Patients were divided into 3 groups matched for age, sex and BMI: diet alone (G1), prebiotics (G2) (30g of carob/d) and probiotics (G3) (1 tablet of Lactibiane/d). Eating behavior and eating disorder symptoms (number of meals/day, number of snacks/day, snacking, night eating, binge eating, bulimia nervosa episodes) were assessed at T0 and at one month after the intervention (T1). No patients took antibiotics during the intervention period and no patient stopped taking carob. The statistical level of significance was defined as P< 0.05.

Results: The mean age was 48.73 ±7.7 years with a female predominance (93.3% of women). The number of meals per day did not change between T0 and T1 for the three groups. There was a significant decrease in the number of snacks per day between T0 and T1 only for the diet alone group (P=0.03). Snacking prevalence significantly decreased in the three groups between T0 and T1 (G1: P< 0.001; G2: P0.04; G3: P< 0.001). For binge eating prevalence, a significant decrease was noted in the diet alone group (P=0.001) and the probiotic group (P=0.002). We also noted a significant decrease in nocturnal eating between T0 and T1 in the three groups (G1: P0.04; G2: P0.01; G3: P0.04). Indeed, at T0, 29% of patients had nocturnal eating and at T1, none of them had any. The prevalence of bulimia nervosa episodes significantly decreased in the three groups (G1: P0.09; G2: P< 0.001; G3: P0.001). For the comparison between groups: The three groups were similar for improvement of eating behavior/disorder.

Conclusion: The significant improvement in eating behavior/disorder was independent of symbiotic intake. Following a weight loss program with a multidisciplinary team including at least a nutritionist and a psychologist is a promising alternative for improving eating disorders.