A four-week dietary intervention with mycoprotein-containing food products reduces serum cholesterol concentrations in community-dwelling, overweight adults: a randomised controlled trial
Pavis, GF; Iniesta, RR; Roper, H; et al.Theobald, HE; Derbyshire, EJ; Finnigan, TJA; Stephens, FB; Wall, BT
Date: 24 January 2024
Article
Journal
Clinical Nutrition
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Background: Substituting dietary meat and fish for mycoprotein, a fungal-derived food source
rich in protein and fibre, decreases circulating cholesterol concentrations in laboratorycontrolled studies. However, whether these findings can be translated to a home-based setting,
and to decrease cholesterol concentrations in overweight ...
Background: Substituting dietary meat and fish for mycoprotein, a fungal-derived food source
rich in protein and fibre, decreases circulating cholesterol concentrations in laboratorycontrolled studies. However, whether these findings can be translated to a home-based setting,
and to decrease cholesterol concentrations in overweight and hypercholesterolemic individuals,
remains to be established.
Objective: We investigated whether a remotely-delivered, home-based dietary intervention of
mycoprotein-containing food products would affect various circulating cholesterol moieties
and other markers of cardio-metabolic health in overweight (BMI >27.5 kg·m-2
) and
hypercholesterolaemic (>5.0 mmol·L-1
) adults.
Methods: Seventy-two participants were randomized into a controlled, parallel-group trial
conducted in a free-living setting, in which they received home deliveries of either meat/fish
control products (CON; n=39; BMI 33±1 kg·m-2
; 13 males, 26 females) or mycoproteincontaining food products (MYC; n=33; BMI 32±1 kg·m-2
; 13 males, 20 females) for 4 weeks.
Fingertip blood samples were collected and sent via postal service before and after the dietary
intervention period and analysed for concentrations of serum lipids, blood glucose and cpeptide.
Results: Serum total cholesterol concentrations were unchanged throughout the intervention in
CON, but decreased by 5±2% in MYC (from 5.4±0.2 to 5.1±0.2 mmol·L
-1
; P<0.05). Serum
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol
concentrations were also unchanged in CON, but decreased in MYC by 10±3% and 6±2%
(both by 0.3±0.1 mmol·L-1
; P<0.05). Serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and free
triglyceride concentrations were unaffected in CON or MYC. Post-intervention, MYC
Journal Pre-proof
3
displayed lower mean blood glucose (3.7±0.2 versus 4.3±0.2 mmol·L-1
) and c-peptide (779±76
vs. 1064±86 pmol·L-1
) concentrations (P<0.05) vs. CON.
Conclusions: We show that a home-based dietary intervention of mycoprotein-containing food
products effectively lowers circulating cholesterol concentrations in overweight,
hypercholesterolemic adults. This demonstratesthat mycoprotein consumption is a feasible and
ecologically valid dietary strategy to improve markers of cardio-metabolic health in an at-risk
population under free living conditions
Public Health and Sport Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Item views 0
Full item downloads 0
Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)