Influence of sourdough prefermentation, of steam cooking suppression and of decreased sucrose content during wheat flakes processing on the plasma glucose and insulin responses and satiety of healthy subjects.

Background: Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals (RTE-BC) are eaten more and more frequently by both adults and adolescents, but their nutritional quality is far from satisfactory: they often contained too much sugars and lead to a high glycemic index (GI) which generally contributes to a more rapid return of the feeling of hunger favouring nibbling in the morning.

Objective: To reduce the GI and to improve the nutritional quality of standard wheat flakes (SWF) by adding a sourdough prefermentation step, suppressing steam cooking and decreasing the sucrose content (MWF, modified wheat flake).

Methods: Eleven healthy male volunteers were randomly given, at three separate times, SWF, MWF, and white-wheat bread (WWB, reference food).

Wheat germ supplementation of a low vitamin E diet in rats affords effective antioxidant protection in tissues.

Background: Oxidative stress is implicated in the etiology of many diseases, but most of clinical trials failed to demonstrate beneficial effects of antioxidant supplementation.

Methods: In the present experiment, we assessed the mean-term effect of wheat germ supplementation, as a dietary source of vitamin E, on antioxidant protection in rat.

Results: Feeding rats a 20% wheat germ diet significantly increased plasma and liver vitamin E levels, compared to the low vitamin E basal diet.

Orally administered isoflavones are present as glucuronides in the human prostate.

Better knowledge of the bioavailability and metabolism of isoflavones in prostate tissue is needed to further investigate their mechanisms of action in the context of prostate cancer prevention. A total of 12 men with benign prostatic hyperplasia received soy extract supplementation (3 Evestrel capsules, providing a total of 112.5 mg isoflavones aglycone eq/day) for 3 days before prostate surgery.

Lipid metabolism and antioxidant status in sucrose vs. potato-fed rats.

Objective: Consumption of high levels of simple carbohydrates is associated with several metabolic disorders in humans and in laboratory animals, including symptoms of an early stage of metabolic syndrome (syndrome X). This disorder has several cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertriglyceridemia, and is associated with an increase in oxidative stress. In contrast to sucrose, potato, a source of complex carbohydrates and antioxidant micronutrients, was thought to improve lipid metabolism and antioxidant protection.

Restoration of thiamine status with white or whole wheat bread in a thiamine-depleted rat model.

Long-term thiamine deficiency has been largely documented, whilst little is known about effects of short-term depletion/repletion periods on thiamine vitamers status. Rats were submitted to short-term depletion (8 days) followed by different durations of repletion (3 or 14 days) with thiamine from bread (whole wheat bread or white bread, whole B and white B respectively) or corresponding controls. Short-term depletion drastically decreased plasma thiamine (-97%) and its urinary excretion (-77%).