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Orange Juice May Protect Against
Bad Effects Of High Fat Meals,
According to Study
Flavonoids from Orange Juice May Neutralize the
Detrimental Effects of Consuming a High-Fat,
High-Carbohydrate Meal,
Reports a New Study...
The citrus compounds known as flavonoids were found
to exert antioxidant activity and reduce the increase in
inflammatory markers produced after consuming a
fast-food-type meal, researchers from the University
at Buffalo report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers linked the apparent benefits of the orange
juice to the high content of the key flavonoids: naringenin
and hesperidin. “Our data show, for the first time to our
knowledge, that drinking orange juice with a meal high in
fat and carbohydrates prevented the marked increases in
reactive oxygen species and other inflammatory agents,”
“This did not happen when participants drank water or a
sugary drink with the meal,” they added.
“These issues of inflammation following a meal are important
because the resultant high glucose and high triglycerides are
known to be related to the development of cardiovascular events.”
Previous studies have reported that the flavonoid-naringenin may
prevent cholesterol increases, and changes in insulin sensitivity
and glucose metabolism linked to metabolic syndrome (Diabetes, 2009,
Vol. 58, pp. 2198-2210). Other studies focussing on hesperidin have
also reported potential cardiovascular and neurological benefits.
How the Study Was Conducted
The Buffalo-based researchers recruited 30 healthy men and
women with a normal body weight and aged between 20 and
40 to participate in their study. The participants were randomly
assigned to one of three groups, all of whom consumed a high-fat,
high-calorie breakfast (900 kcal) following an overnight fast. One
group consumed water, the second group consumed “not-from-
concentrate” orange juice, while the third group received a
glucose drink.
Analysis of blood samples showed that the level of oxygen
free radicals increased in all groups, but the increase was
significantly less when orange juice was consumed with the
meal. Specifically, levels increased by 62 and 63 per cent following
consumption of water and the glucose drink, respectively, and by
47 per cent following co-consumption of the orange juice.
In addition, the researchers reported an increase in blood
components known as toll-like receptors (TLRs) following
consumption of the water and glucose drink, but not the orange
juice. TLRs reportedly play an important role in the development of
inflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, and injury
to cardiac cells than can occur after a blocked vessel is reopened.
“These data emphasize that a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal is
profoundly and rapidly pro-inflammatory, and that this process occurs
at the cellular and molecular level,” explained the researchers. “In
addition, specific pro-inflammatory genes are activated after the intake
of glucose and a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal, and these changes
are observed in mono-nuclear cells that participate in vascular
inflammation and insulin resistance,” they added.
Dietary recommendation, not orange juice and burgers!
The researchers were quick to emphasize that regular consumption
of such fast-food high-fat meals may produce permanent inflammation,
and that consuming orange juice with a high-fat meal was not a “license
to sin” type of dietary recommendation for heart health. “The choice of
safe foods that are not pro-inflammatory may provide protection from the
unending cycle of postprandial and cumulative inflammation,” they
emphasized “This choice may lower the risk of atherosclerosis and
resistance to insulin.”
The research was funded by grants from the Florida Department of
Citrus, the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes
Association.
April 2010, Vol. 91, No. 4, 940-949,
“Orange juice neutralizes the proi-nflammatory effect of a high-fat,
high-carbohydrate meal and prevents endotoxin increase and
Toll-like receptor expression”
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