Fruit juice drinks prevent endogenous antioxidant response to high-fat meal ingestion

Abstract

High-fat meals (HFM) induce metabolic stress, leading to the activation of protective mechanisms, including inflammation and endogenous antioxidant defences. In the present study, we investigated the effects of antioxidant-rich fruit juice drinks on the endogenous antioxidant response induced by HFM. In a double-blind, cross-over design (10 d washout), fourteen overweight volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the following interventions: HFM þ 500 ml placebo beverage (HFM-PB, free from fruit); HFM þ 500 ml antioxidant beverage 1 (HFM-AB1; apple, grape, blueberry and pomegranate juices and grape skin, grape seed and green tea extracts); HFM þ 500 ml antioxidant beverage 2 (HFM-AB2; pineapple, black currant and plum juices). HFM-PB consumption increased the plasma levels of thiols (SH) (4 h, P,0·001) and uric acid (UA) (2 h, P,0·01) and total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter (TRAP) (4 h, P, 0·01). Following the consumption of drinks, UA production was significantly reduced with respect to placebo beverage consumption 8 h after HFM-AB2 consumption (P,0·05). SH levels were reduced 0·5 (P, 0·05), 1 (P,0·05) and 2 h (P, 0·01) after HFM-AB1 consumption and 2, 4 and 8 h (P, 0·05) after HFM-AB2 consumption. Plasma TRAP (2 h, P, 0·001) and urinary ferric reducing antioxidant power (0-8 h, P,0·01) were increased by HFM-AB1 consumption, the drink with the highest in vitro antioxidant capacity, but not by HFM-AB2 consumption. In urine, UA levels were significantly increased from basal levels after the consumption of HFM-PB and HFM-AB2. However, neither of the beverages increased the urinary excretion of UA with respect to the placebo beverage. In conclusion, the increase in UA and SH levels induced by HFM as part of an endogenous antioxidant response to postprandial stress can be prevented by the concomitant ingestion of antioxidant-rich fruit juice drinks.Key words: High-fat meals: Fruit juice drinks: Endogenous antioxidants: Non-enzymatic antioxidant capacityThe instauration of postprandial stress conditions following the ingestion of high-energy meals is recognised as one of the contributing factors to the development of CVD (1) . The underlying mechanism involves the excess production of pro-oxidant molecules, which, in turn, may inactivate endothelium-derived relaxing factors, in particular, NO, leading to impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and to the onset of an inflammatory response, which further contributes to the generation of free radicals (2) . While high-carbohydrate meals are thought to increase inflammation in subjects with altered glucose and insulin metabolism (3) , postprandial hypertriacylglycerolaemia has been reported to be predictive for cardiovascular events and CHD incidence in healthy people (4) . In intervention studies, the ingestion of single high-fat meals (HFM) has been reported to be associated with inflammation (5 -7) , impairment of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation (8,9) and increased oxidative stress (9) in both healthy and diabetic subjects.Thus, excess fa...

Functional Foods for Health: The Interrelated Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Role of Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, Spices and Cocoa in Humans

“…Dietary interventions were grouped according to different categories, specifically vegetables (Table 1 ) [26-31], fruits (Table 2 ) [32-54], grape seeds (Table 3 ) [55-59], herbs (Table 4 ) [60-65], green tea (Table 5 ) [66-70], spices (Table 6 ) [71-78], beverages with mixed composition (Table 7 ) [8, 79-82] extracts with mixed composition (Table 8 ) [83-93] and cocoa products (Table 9 ) [66, 94-97]. Selection of the plant foods was performed on the basis of available human data on both oxidative and inflammatory markers: for example, raspberry, blackberry and olives were not included due to the lack of combined information.…”

“…On the contrary, half liter of a mixed fruit-based drink decreased the postprandial inflammatory stress induced by a high fat meal (1361 calories) without affecting redox markers in overweight subjects [8, 82] as displayed in Table 7 .…”

Effects and Mechanisms of Fruit and Vegetable Juices on Cardiovascular Diseases

“…In human subjects, blackcurrant significantly elevated both plasma ascorbic acid and radical-scavenging capacity. According to Miglio et al [80], concomitant ingestion of antioxidant-rich fruit juice could prevent the increase in levels of uric acid and thiols induced by high-fat meals. In addition, the antioxidant defense mechanism against CCl 4 -induced reproductive toxicity could be augmented by pomegranate juice [81].…”

Effect of Dark Chocolate Extracts on Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate-Induced Oxidative Burst in Leukocytes Isolated by Normo-Weight and Overweight/Obese Subjects

“…Indeed, after the consumption of unbalanced meals, the susceptibility of the organism toward oxidative damage is increased and metabolic and transcriptional pathways are activated leading to a massive increase in the production of free radicals and pro-inflammatory cytokines, through an increase of neutrophil numbers (49, 50). Flavonoid-rich foods have been shown to reduce the onset of oxidative stress derived from postprandial stress condition (51). In this work, we clearly showed, for the first time, that the antioxidant effect of cocoa extract is more evident in neutrophils extracted from subjects characterized by oxidative stress such as overweight and obese.…”