 | |||
About Food for ThoughtWritten for food industry decision makers, Food for Thought reports periodically on agrofood activities and advances within the Netherlands. Its articles, overviews and white papers provide an overall perspective on food technologies, innovations and R&D taking place here. Articles in this issueSafety and preservation issues with mildly processed foods Faster detection of Salmonella contamination in the food chain Bacteriophages: Fighting off disease-causing germs Reporter gene bioassays for detection of very low levels of compounds Unparalleled focus on food safety at Wageningen University and Research Centre Body shape determines dietary recommendations Small Bites: Editorial Advisory Board
|
TNO Research findingsBody shape determines dietary recommendationsA new study from the Dutch research organization TNO demonstrates that the body shapes of overweight people influence how their fat tissue responds to dietary fats [Radonjic et al: Genes Nutr. (2009) 4:143-149]. In this latest study, Dr. M. Radonjic and her colleagues at TNO conclude that: the distribution of body fat in overweight people might represent an important consideration when providing dietary advice.
This study compared people with an "apple" shape (predominant fat deposition around the waist) to those with "pear" shapes (fat depositions on the hips and thighs). This research provides important insights into the effect of body fat distribution on the processing of dietary fats. The observation also underscores the relevance of personalized dietary recommendations for improving obesity-associated disorders. Prompted by the growing need to manage obesity-related disorders, numerous investigations aim to optimize the diet of obese people as a way of improving their health. One of the accepted approaches is shifting from a diet rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) to a diet based on medium-chain fatty acids (MCT). This dietary shift has been shown to be potentially beneficial due to the rapid breakdown of MCTs and their routing directly to the liver instead of being stored as fat tissue. The TNO findings, however, indicate that the extent of the favorable effect of consumption of MCT-rich diets strongly depends on the body fat distribution of an obese individual. Principal investigator Marijana Radonjic explains the relevance of her research results: "By measuring the activity of all the genes in the fat tissue of obese volunteers, we were able to identify individual responses to the different fats. Interestingly, we found that the effects were opposite in apple-type and pear-type subjects. An MCT-rich diet increases the expression of genes responsible for driving metabolic processes in the fat tissue of pear-type individuals, but has a contrary effect in apple-type individuals. In addition to suppression of metabolic genes, an MCT-rich diet causes inflammation in fat tissue of apple-type individuals. Therefore, TNO has shown, for the first time, that although an MCT-rich diet may have positive effects for pears, it has an adverse effect on obesity-related complications of apples. These findings highlight the need for personalized strategies to improve health. The use of genome-wide gene expression profiling has proven to be successful as a means of determining person-specific response to dietary interventions. This methodology is receiving increased attention in the field of personalized health." More detailed research is needed, however, before specific advice at the individual level can be provided. In the crossover study, 11 mildly obese male volunteers were selected to consume a margarine containing predominantly, either medium-chain fatty acids (MCT) or long-chain fatty acids (PUFA). Each of two diets was given to each subject for 3 weeks, with a period of 6 weeks in between. After three weeks on a specific diet, fat tissue biopsies were taken from the subject's abdomen and gene expression in these biopsies was analyzed. This analysis led to the observations mentioned above, providing important insights into the effect of body fat distribution on the processing of dietary fats. Nutrigenomics investigates molecular relationships between dietary components and genes, proteins and/or metabolites on a large scale, to find strategies to improve human health. Monitoring the activity of all genes (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics) and metabolites (metabolomics) in the desired nutritional condition, allows researchers to characterize a complex relationship between nutrients and physiological properties of an organism. Due to its sensitivity, nutrigenomics is successful in segmenting a group based on personalized responses to mild diet changes. Therefore, nutrigenomics holds great potential for refining dietary recommendations and dietary product-associated health claims. TNO has an internationally recognized position in both academic- and industry-based nutrigenomics research. The study presented above is a part of TNO's growing portfolio in nutrigenomics of fat tissue biopsies within a human studies setting, and underscores the relevance of personalized dietary recommendations for improving obesity-associated disorders.
Contact Details: |
||
