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Less snacking, more satisfaction: Some foods boost levels of an Ozempic-like hormone

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Less snacking, more satisfaction: Some foods boost levels of an Ozempic-like hormone

A fiber found in barley, called beta-glucan, may improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure and increase satiation between meals, research shows.

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A fiber found in barley, called beta-glucan, may improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure and increase satiation between meals, research shows.

LauriPatterson/Getty Images

For several months now, I’ve been studying how the new medications, Ozempic and Wegovy, cause dramatic weight loss.

Both medications contain a compound, semaglutide, that squelches hunger like a fly swatter smashes a mosquito. People who take the medication say they no longer have constant cravings for food, so they eat less frequently. The drug seems to quiet what some people call “food noise,” the constant internal chatter telling them to eat.

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While reading study after study about Wevgovy and Ozempic, I learned that the drug mimics a hormone that our bodies naturally make when we’re eating food. It’s called GLP-1. This made me wonder: Could we increase levels of this hormone by changing our diet?

Turns out, the answer is yes – you can increase your body’s production of GLP-1 with your diet, says Frank Duca, who studies metabolic diseases at the University of Arizona. One of the key foods that triggers its release is a food most Americans struggle to eat enough of, even though it comes with a cornucopia of health benefits. Yup, I’m talking about fiber.

Whenever my family finds out that I’m studying obesity or diabetes, they say, ‘Oh, what’s the wonder drug? What do I need to take? What do I need to do?’” Duca explains. “And I say, ‘Eat more fiber.’ “

But here’s the hitch. Not all fiber works the same way. Duca and other researchers are beginning to show that particular types of fibers are more potent at triggering GLP-1 release and at regulating hunger than others. “We’re seeing now that companies are adding fiber to foods, but a lot of the time, they don’t add the kind of fiber that’s super beneficial for you,” Duca says.

How GLP-1 helps flip hunger into satisfaction

To understand why fiber is so important for producing GLP-1, let’s look at what happens when you don’t eat much fiber. Let’s say you wake up in the morning feeling hungry and you eat two slices of white bread and a fried egg. As the digested food moves into the small intestine, many of the nutrients, such as the carbohydrates, fats and amino acids, trigger an avalanche of activity in your blood and brain.

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“The food activates cells in your intestine, which then release a ton of hormones,” says Sinju Sundaresan, who’s a gut physiologist at Midwestern University. About 20 of these hormones, including GLP-1, are known as satiation hormones.

“They tell your body to start absorption, and to suppress your hunger signals,” Sundaresan says. So you slow down eating and eventually stop because you feel satisfied.

At this point, GLP-1 kicks into action. It stimulates the release of insulin and slows down how quickly the bread and egg moves from your stomach into the intestine. So you don’t use up the fuel all at once, says Gary Schwartz, who studies the neuroscience of eating and appetite at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

GLP-1 also likely activates neural circuitry inside the brain by turning on nerves inside the lining of your gut. “These neurons collect information from the gut, and then signal all the way to the brain stem, where you find another signaling pathway for GLP-1,” Schwartz explains.

But GLP-1’s actions are extremely fast. “Once the hormone hits the blood, it begins to be degraded,” says integrated physiologist Darleen Sandoval, at the University of Colorado, who has studied GLP-1 for more than a decade. “By the time GLP-1 gets to the heart and the rest of the circulation, there’s very little of it left,” she says.

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And so an hour or two after eating this no-fiber breakfast, GLP-1 levels in your blood plummet. And when lunch rolls around, you’re hungry again.

This is where GLP-1 differs substantially from semaglutide, the active ingredient in weight-loss drugs. GLP-1 sticks around in the blood for only a few minutes, but semaglutide persists for days. And this stability allows the drug to go into the brain, where it squelches appetite and cravings directly, says Sandoval. That’s why people on these drugs lose so much weight. “In mice or rats, we can give naturally occurring GLP-1 directly into the animals’ brains, and it stops them from eating,” Sandoval says.

But, back to our breakfast scenarios: What if, instead of eating white bread, you had two slices of high-fiber rye bread, with about 8 to 10 grams of fiber in them? Turns out, adding that hefty portion of fiber adds another opportunity for your intestine to release GLP-1, many hours after the meal.

Satiation hormones last longer after eating fiber

Our bodies don’t have the capacity to break down fiber. So it moves through our small intestines largely unchanged, and eventually – approximately 4 to 10 hours after a meal – reaches our colons.

Here, inside the large intestine, the fiber meets a whole crew of microbes that can digest the fiber. Bacteria in your large intestine can break down certain dietary fibers into smaller molecules. And these smaller molecules can trigger the release of not only GLP-1, but also another key hormone that decreases your appetite, called PYY (peptide YY). These smaller molecules also can suppress appetite on their own, and have been linked to lower body weight and better glucose regulation.

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Since this extra boost of GLP-1 and PYY occurs hours after you eat, it can tamp down cravings between meals and even the overall desire to eat the next meal. “PPY regulates satiety – that is how long you wait between meals,” says the University of Arizona’s Frank Duca. “The release of PYY, in addition to the GLP-1, can increase the length of time between meals,” he says.

These hormones may even influence how much you eat at the next meal. “This is what’s called a second meal effect,” says Edward Deehan, a nutritional microbiologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “If you eat a lot of fiber at one meal, by the time it’s in your colon, it’s around the time of your next meal. So you may have improved insulin responses and improved satiety or a feeling of fullness,” Deehan says.

But, not all fiber is equal: To get this extra boost of satiation hormones, you need to eat fiber that bacteria can digest. These fibers are called fermentable because bacteria literally ferment them, in a similar way that yeast ferments barley into beer.

Scientists, such as Duca, have just started trying to figure out which fermentable fibers may be best at suppressing appetite and inducing weight-loss. “So the agricultural community in the U.S. could prioritize the growing of grains with these fibers,” he explains.

In one preliminary study with mice, Duca and his colleagues found that a fiber in barley, called beta-glucan, induced the most weight loss in obese animals. “At face value and, at least in our settings, it was only beta-glucan that was effective,he says.

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How To Add Barley To Your Diet

Cooking barley is super easy. Some recipes call for soaking the grain before boiling. But it’s not necessary. Simply add one cup of barley and three cups of water to a pot.

For pearled barley, continue boiling for about 30 minutes. For hulled barley, boil for about 40 minutes. Strain the water and you’re ready!

You can throw barley into soups or on salads and boiled barley is a great fiber-rich substitute for white rice. You can also buy barley flour and use it for baking breads, muffins and pancakes.

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Beta-glucan is also found in oats and rye. And indeed, studies with people have found that beta-glucan fiber may improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure and increase satiation between meals.

Other fermentable fibers include dextrin in wheat, oligosaccharides in beans, peas and lentils, and pectin in apples, pears and green bananas.

If your diet currently doesn’t include much fiber, Duca says, don’t worry too much about which fiber you start adding. “Just being aware of how much fiber you’re eating and increasing it, that’s a huge step to improving your health,” he says. “Then once you get into the habit of eating more fiber, you can be more specific about adding more beta glucan and barley.”

But beware of processed foods that claim to have fiber added to them, Duca says. “Companies are hearing that they need to increase the fiber in their foods, but then a lot of times, they’re adding fiber that isn’t super beneficial for you,” he says. “It’s the type of fiber that just passes right through you, without triggering the release of any hormones.”

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This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh

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Video: How the L.A. Port got hit by Trump’s Tariffs

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Video: How the L.A. Port got hit by Trump’s Tariffs

New York Times reporter Ana Swanson reports from the Los Angeles Port, the largest port in the Western Hemisphere as well as the place that first saw the signs of Trump’s tariff war. The Port of Los Angeles is significant because of our trade relationship with China in particular, which is why The Trump administration’s 145% tariffs on the country resulted in lower volume at the port. Ana Swanson explains what the port illustrates about U.S. trade and how what’s felt at the Port of Los Angeles will soon be felt by U.S. consumers.

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Swiss central bank cuts interest rates to zero

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Swiss central bank cuts interest rates to zero

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The Swiss National Bank has cut interest rates by a quarter point to zero but did not go so far as negative rates, as it battles to restrain its currency, which has surged on global trade tensions. 

It is the first time that the Alpine country, which is one of the few globally to experiment with negative rates, has an interest rate of zero as it tackles lagging inflation and a surging Swiss franc, a haven currency that investors have bought up amid US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

The cut comes after annual inflation in Switzerland dipped to minus 0.1 per cent in May, the first negative reading in four years. The appreciating Swiss franc — up 10 per cent against the dollar this year — has slashed the cost of imports, dragging down consumer prices.

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The Swiss franc strengthened after Thursday’s expected cut, with the dollar down 0.2 per cent against the franc by afternoon trading at SFr0.817.

A minority of traders had been betting on a larger, half-point cut, according to levels implied by the swaps markets. The franc’s rally after Thursday’s decision was prompted by those bets being “unwound”, said analysts at BBH.

SNB chair Martin Schlegel said at a press conference that the bank would “not take a decision to go negative lightly”. The central bank would also have to take into account the interests of savers, pension funds and others, he said.

Traders slightly trimmed their bets on further rate cuts after Schlegel’s remarks, and were putting a roughly 60 per cent chance that the SNB will cut again to minus 0.25 per cent by March next year.

Switzerland’s two-year government bond yields, which are sensitive to movements in rate expectations, rose 0.09 percentage points to minus 0.10 per cent.

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The SNB has also repeatedly flagged financial stability risks from soaring valuations for Swiss property in a lower interest rate environment.

Schlegel did not, however, rule out a move into negative territory, with global trade turmoil possibly forcing the bank down that path in the months ahead.

“It sounds like they are going to play it by ear, which slightly dents market conviction on negative rates,” said Francesco Pesole, an FX strategist at ING.

The so-called Swissie’s sharp rise this year has complicated policymaking. The SNB is attempting to ease pressure without triggering accusations of currency manipulation from the US, which placed Switzerland on a watchlist during Trump’s first term. Analysts say rate cuts are a diplomatically safer route than direct FX intervention. 

The SNB’s decision contrasts with the Federal Reserve’s continued wait-and-see approach. The Bank of England also held rates at 4.25 per cent at its latest meeting.

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However, Norway’s central bank unexpectedly cut borrowing costs on Thursday, loosening monetary policy for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The strength of the economy in western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer had led it to keep rates higher than nearly all its neighbours, including Sweden’s Riksbank and the European Central Bank. But Norges Bank decided that the inflation outlook was subdued enough that it could cut rates by a quarter point to 4.25 per cent. 

Switzerland first introduced negative interest rates in December 2014, when the SNB set the deposit rate at minus 0.25 per cent to stem the franc’s appreciation amid safe-haven inflows.

The SNB at one stage pushed the rate down to minus 0.75 per cent, the lowest level in the world. The policy remained in place for more than seven years, also making it one of the world’s longest negative rate periods until it exited it in 2022. 

Thursday’s cut creates a potentially tricky situation for Swiss banks. They no longer earn interest on their reserves with the SNB but theoretically have less justification to pass that cost on to customers.

Daniel Kalt, chief economist at UBS, the country’s largest bank, said zero per cent was probably the most difficult scenario for banks.

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“In terms of pressure on net interest margins, it couldn’t be worse than with the situation we have today. With this, it is hard for banks to justify charging customers fees like they did during the previous period of negative interest rates,” Kalt said.

Video: Why governments are ‘addicted’ to debt | FT Film
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Despite new challenges, Juneteenth event organizers are unbowed

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Despite new challenges, Juneteenth event organizers are unbowed

Atmosphere at the 4th Annual Black On The Block Juneteenth Festival on June 15, 2025, in Los Angeles.

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Today is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when U.S. Army troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform some of the last enslaved Americans that they were free.

They were enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln had issued more than two years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863.

Various events were planned across the country and some took the current politically and racially charged climate into account.

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In Bend, Ore., planners of the annual Juneteenth festival said they took a different approach this year.

“Cautious. Cautious would probably be a good word,” Kenneth Adams, one of the planners, said of holding this year’s event at a public park.

He and other organizers were concerned about safety.

“Given the nationwide climate, we are heavily about making sure that people are safe,” Adams said.

They canceled the event. Another group revived it, smaller and indoors.

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In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said state employees would no longer get Juneteenth as a paid holiday. That includes Ray Whiting, who has helped plan a Juneteenth parade and festival in Charleston for the past four years.

“I am disappointed in the governor’s decision,” Whiting said.

“So we moved the event to Friday. That way people won’t miss [it]. And all parties can celebrate.”

In Denver, Norman Harris has organized the city’s Juneteenth Music Festival since 2012. This year, it was just one day instead of two.

Norman Harris III, organizer of Juneteenth Music Festival, poses for a portrait at Brother Jeff's Cultural Center in Five Point Denver, Colorado on Friday, June 4, 2021.

Norman Harris III, organizer of Juneteenth Music Festival, poses for a portrait at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Five Point Denver, Colorado on Friday, June 4, 2021.

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“We had a number of corporate partners who have been supporting us over the years who either pulled back their support or just were not there this year,” Harris said.

Still, with help from individual donors, he expected it to be “a cultural treasure chest where people are immersed in Black culture and celebrating Black excellence.”

In Nashville, organizers of the “Juneteenth615” festival say it’s their biggest year yet. Willie Sims, known as Big Fella, says skipping the celebration isn’t an option.

“So everybody, what if they cancel Juneteenth? I’m like, you can’t cancel Juneteenth. There’s been communities celebrating this since 1866. Like, when you actually go and say, we’re going to cancel it, I think you’re literally going to bring more of a light to it.”

Click the audio player to hear NPR staff read the text of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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