Health & Medicine
Citrus Fruits Can Prevent Obesity-Related Diseases, Diabetes
Johnson D
First Posted: Aug 24, 2016 05:45 AM EDT
Citrus fruits have always been known to have a lot of vitamins and substances like antioxidants that can help you stay healthy. A new study showed that these fruits can also help prevent harmful effects of obesity when included in a Western-style, high-fat diet.
A recent study has revealed that including citrus fruits like oranges, limes, and lemons in the diet can be a way to fight off the continuous rise of obesity-related diseases in the United States. The study has showed that the benefits of these fruits which were not really paid any attention to in the past could have helped about 80 million obese people in the U.S.
"Our results indicate that in the future we can use citrus flavanones, a class of antioxidants, to prevent or delay chronic diseases caused by obesity in humans," says Paula S. Ferreira, a graduate student with the research team at San Paulo State University in Brazil.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are over one-third of the total adults in the United States are suffering from obesity. Being obesity can put you at a higher risk of developing heart disease, liver disease and diabetes, commonly caused by oxidative stress and inflammation, said Ferreira. Humans usually accumulate fats in their bodies when they often have a high-fat diet. These fat cells produce exaggerated amount of reactive oxygen species that can damage cells in a process known as oxidative stress. The body usually reacts to the molecules with antioxidants, newsmax.com reported.
For the study, researchers fed a group of 50 mice different diets such as a standard diet, a high-fat diet, or a high-fat diet mixed with flavanones, which are a class of antioxidants found in oranges, lemons, and limes to test how far benefits of citrus fruits can go. Medical Daily reported that the mice that were fed with a high-fat diet suffered increased the levels of cell-damage markers called thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) by 80 percent and the liver by 57 percent compared to those who were fed with a standard diet. But researchers found that flavanones (hesperidin, eriocitrin and eriodictyol) decreased the TBARS levels in the liver by 50 percent, 57 percent and 64 percent, respectively.
Although weight loss was not observed as a result of the citrus flavanones study, researchers were able to conclude that the mice did not have to lose weight to experience the health benefits. It was observed that they had lower levels of stress, liver damage, blood lips and blood glucose, drastically decreasing their risk for disease. Meanwhile, Science Daily reported the researchers claiming that people should get the same disease-fighting effects at home. This could simply be done by consuming a glass of lemon juice or, maybe take a pill with concentrated flavanone compounds in the future.
"In the future we can use citrus flavanone to prevent or delay chronic diseases caused by obesity in humans," said the study's co-author Paula S. Ferreira, a graduate student at the Universidad Estadual Paulista, in a statement. "This study also suggests that consuming citrus fruits probably could have beneficial effects for people who are not obese, but have diets rich in fats, putting them at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity."
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TagsCitrus fruits, oranges, lemons, limes, health benefits, obesity-related disease, Heart Disease, liver disease ©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
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First Posted: Aug 24, 2016 05:45 AM EDT
Citrus fruits have always been known to have a lot of vitamins and substances like antioxidants that can help you stay healthy. A new study showed that these fruits can also help prevent harmful effects of obesity when included in a Western-style, high-fat diet.
A recent study has revealed that including citrus fruits like oranges, limes, and lemons in the diet can be a way to fight off the continuous rise of obesity-related diseases in the United States. The study has showed that the benefits of these fruits which were not really paid any attention to in the past could have helped about 80 million obese people in the U.S.
"Our results indicate that in the future we can use citrus flavanones, a class of antioxidants, to prevent or delay chronic diseases caused by obesity in humans," says Paula S. Ferreira, a graduate student with the research team at San Paulo State University in Brazil.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are over one-third of the total adults in the United States are suffering from obesity. Being obesity can put you at a higher risk of developing heart disease, liver disease and diabetes, commonly caused by oxidative stress and inflammation, said Ferreira. Humans usually accumulate fats in their bodies when they often have a high-fat diet. These fat cells produce exaggerated amount of reactive oxygen species that can damage cells in a process known as oxidative stress. The body usually reacts to the molecules with antioxidants, newsmax.com reported.
For the study, researchers fed a group of 50 mice different diets such as a standard diet, a high-fat diet, or a high-fat diet mixed with flavanones, which are a class of antioxidants found in oranges, lemons, and limes to test how far benefits of citrus fruits can go. Medical Daily reported that the mice that were fed with a high-fat diet suffered increased the levels of cell-damage markers called thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) by 80 percent and the liver by 57 percent compared to those who were fed with a standard diet. But researchers found that flavanones (hesperidin, eriocitrin and eriodictyol) decreased the TBARS levels in the liver by 50 percent, 57 percent and 64 percent, respectively.
Although weight loss was not observed as a result of the citrus flavanones study, researchers were able to conclude that the mice did not have to lose weight to experience the health benefits. It was observed that they had lower levels of stress, liver damage, blood lips and blood glucose, drastically decreasing their risk for disease. Meanwhile, Science Daily reported the researchers claiming that people should get the same disease-fighting effects at home. This could simply be done by consuming a glass of lemon juice or, maybe take a pill with concentrated flavanone compounds in the future.
"In the future we can use citrus flavanone to prevent or delay chronic diseases caused by obesity in humans," said the study's co-author Paula S. Ferreira, a graduate student at the Universidad Estadual Paulista, in a statement. "This study also suggests that consuming citrus fruits probably could have beneficial effects for people who are not obese, but have diets rich in fats, putting them at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone