Right Diet Substantially Lowers Cardiovascular Risk – TNO

For its anti-inflammatory dietary mix, TNO combined fish oil, resveratrol (present in red wine), lycopene (in tomatoes), catechin (in tea) and vitamins E and C.

3/31/2011 -- TNO, a Dutch innovation organization, announced that an anti-inflammatory dietary mix has shown significant benefits in cardiovascular health. Signs of inflammation and atherosclerosis are noticeably reduced. Long-term use of the dietary mix in a mouse model even reduced the development of atherosclerosis by more than 90%. This research expands the findings from a previous shorter study conducted in healthy volunteers with the same anti-inflammatory dietary mix.

A sedentary lifestyle and high calorie and high fat diet can contribute to the high incidence of cardiovascular disease. Many studies suggest that certain dietary compounds can have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular health in humans. A mixture of these beneficial compounds may be an effective way to prevent cardiovascular disease and promote health. For its anti-inflammatory dietary mix, TNO combined fish oil, resveratrol (present in red wine), lycopene (in tomatoes), catechin (in tea) and vitamins E and C.

According to Henk Hendriks, Business Line Manager Food and Health at TNO: “It is difficult to measure how changes in one’s diet affect health, and the effects may become apparent only after a very long period of time. The combined use of new systems biology approaches in human studies and translational in vivo models appeared to be a successful new strategy to evaluate how effective a specific diet and ingredients are. 

Currently, the dietary mix is not commercially available. We expect that companies that want to develop healthy dietary mixes will benefit from the method and the study results so that they can provide new, healthier products to consumers.”

In the placebo-controlled human study, 30 subjects consumed the anti-inflammatory dietary mix during a period of 5 weeks and demonstrated that the volunteers had less inflammation and a better metabolism at the end of the study. The long term study in mice was conducted in a specific mouse strain selected because of its ability to react to a high calorie and high fat diet similarly to humans. The mice had a more effective defense against inflammation and were better able to deal with the ‘Western diet”. This led to an almost complete absence of atherosclerosis. All mice receiving the Western diet without the protective dietary mix developed atherosclerosis. Thus, the protective mechanisms appear to have been activated both in humans and mice.

The findings were published in the renowned scientific journals ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’ and the ‘Journal of Nutrition’. The study was part of TNO’s research program into Healthy Living and Personalized Health and was conducted in Leiden and Zeist in the Netherlands.

Reference:
G.Bakker et al. An anti inflammatory dietary mix modulates inflammation and oxidative and metabolic stress in overweight men: a nutrigenomics approach: Am J Clin Nutr April 2010 vol. 91 no. 4 1044-1059 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Verschuren L, et al. A Dietary Mixture Containing Fish Oil, Resveratrol, Lycopene, Catechins, and Vitamins E and C Reduces Atherosclerosis in Transgenic Mice. J Nutr 2011 in press