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Girls who added a prebiotic fiber supplement to their usual diets for a year built more bone than girls who took a placebo, according to a clinical trial led by Florida International University nutrition researcher Cristina Palacios.

Over 12 months, bone mineral content in girls who took soluble corn fiber increased by 18.8%, compared to 12.9% in the placebo group. The same effect was not seen in boys. Results of the MetA-Bone clinical trial were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"That difference of 6 percentage points may sound like a small difference, but this is a significant, clinically relevant number for just adding this powder to the diet," said Palacios, professor and chair of the department of dietetics and nutrition at FIU's Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. "That difference of 6 percentage points could possibly mean not getting an osteoporotic fracture many years later, after menopause."

The trial tested whether the fiber could help children build more bone mass, as short-term studies show that the fiber helps absorb more calcium, an essential mineral for bone growth, during a critical period of childhood.

"People think about osteoporosis as something that affects their grandparents," Palacios said. "But so much of what happens to our bones later is set in motion when we're young."

Early adolescence, right around when puberty hits, is when the body builds most of the bone mass carried for life.

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