The attenuation of metabolic syndrome and improvement of gastrointestinal microarchitecture and physiology by consumption of whole food products in the diet of male wistar rats

The attenuation of metabolic syndrome and improvement of gastrointestinal microarchitecture and physiology by consumption of whole food products in the diet of male wistar rats

Metabolic syndrome is a group of co-morbidities that, when combined, raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The syndrome is characterised by visceral obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, fatty liver, impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance. A healthy diet is paramount to lowering these risks, including the consumption of whole foods, such as oats and coconut, to provide a multitude of nutrients that can achieve this. While understanding how individual nutrients impact health is important, when consumed these nutrients are taken together, so it is also important to understand how they work in synergy with each other, the food matrix that they are found in and other foods that are consumed with them.

Methods: Male Wistar rats fed either a diet containing either cornstarch or a combination of high carbohydrate and high fat was supplemented with either 5%-glucan powder, 20% wholegrain oat groats, or had the saturated fat component replaced with coconut oil or coconut Nourish for the final 8 weeks of a 16-week protocol. Cardiovascular, metabolic and physiological parameters were then measured to determine whether these products improved cardiometabolic biomarkers of metabolic syndrome. As oats contains prebiotic compounds that are beneficial to gastrointestinal health, the morphology of the small intestine and colon were also measured in the oat studies as was faecal short-chain fatty acid concentrations to quantify changes in the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract.

Results: Oats and coconut as whole foods attenuated metabolic syndrome markers.
-glucan powder improved glucose tolerance, systolic
-glucan powder also decreased triglyceride concentrations. All oat products improved duodenal morphology and
-glucan powder increased faecal short-chain fatty acid
concentrations. Virgin coconut oil and coconut Nourish improved blood pressure.
Virgin coconut oil decreased abdominal circumference and fasting glucose
concentrations and coconut Nourish decreased total cholesterol concentrations.

Conclusions: The studies in this thesis provide evidence that different types of whole foods from the same cereal crop or fruit produce similar results in improving
cardiometabolic biomarkers in this model of diet induced metabolic syndrome. They also provided evidence that modulation of the gastrointestinal tract plays an important role in improving health parameters. The most likely mechanisms of these whole food components are through cardioprotective and hepatoprotective effects produced by anti-inflammatory responses and alterations to short-chain fatty acid production within the colon.