01/27/2026
Nearly 15 million children and adolescents in the United States are considered obese. GLP-1 prescription medications are highly effective in promoting weight loss and treating Type 2 diabetes. In the first clinical study of a carbohydrate combination and its effect on activating GLP-1, the researchers are using a combination of raw corn starch and raw potato starch in a two-month intervention with youth being treated for obesity.
If the study shows that the carbohydrate mixture reduces appetite and food intake, the natural dietary supplement could be a viable alternative to prescription medication and useful in helping to achieve or maintain weight loss.
Nearly 15 million children and adolescents in the United States are considered obese. GLP-1 receptor agonist prescription medications are highly effective in promoting weight loss and treating Type 2 diabetes. These drugs mimic an innate system in the human body that secretes GLP-1 through triggering of specialized cells in the gastrointestinal tract. This natural system activates the gut-brain axis that results in increased satiety and decreased food intake.
For more than 15 years, Bruce Hamaker, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Food Science at Purdue University, has led research to determine if these same cells affecting appetite and food consumption can be similarly activated through all-natural, food-based carbohydrate supplements. In research funded by the Heartland Children’s Nutrition Collaborative, Dr. Hamaker is partnering with Sara Naramore, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Riley Children’s Health. Dr. Naramore, who is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, specializes in the treatment of children and adolescents with obesity.
In the first clinical study of a carbohydrate combination and its effect on activating GLP-1, Dr. Hamaker and Dr. Naramore are using a combination of raw corn starch, which is digestible in the small intestine, and raw potato starch, which is fermentable by the gut microbiome. The mixture, previously shown independently in studies to be effective in animal models, will be used in a two-month intervention with youth 12 years and older who are being treated for obesity. Formulated as a powder, the carbohydrate combination will be added to water and taken two times a day—once in the morning and then again in the late afternoon before dinner.
“Our expectation is not that we’re going to match the effectiveness of these very powerful prescription medications, but we hope that we’ll see some reduction in appetite and food intake with this study,” said Dr. Hamaker.
If the carbohydrate mixture proves effective in clinical studies, Dr. Hamaker said there are practical applications for how the dietary supplement could be used in weight management.
“There are some children and families who don’t want to take the prescription medication, so this could be a viable alternative,” he explained. “For children and adolescents who have taken a GLP-1 medication and lost weight, a natural food supplement like this could be useful in helping maintain that weight loss.”
A Project of the Heartland Children’s Nutrition Collaborative
This work is made possible through a generous gift to the Riley Children’s Foundation from the Ricks Family Foundation, led by Riley physician Christina Ricks, MD, and her husband David A. Ricks. Their support fuels the Heartland Children’s Nutrition Collaborative—a joint effort between the IU School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and Purdue’s Department of Food Science—to uncover how early‑life nutrition can influence lifelong health outcomes.
