Consumption of whole purple and regular wheat modestly improves metabolic markers in adults with elevated high sensitivity C-reactive protein: A randomized, single-blind parallel arm study.

Whole grain wheat, in particular colored varieties, may have health benefits in adults with chronic metabolic disease risk factors. 29 overweight and obese adults with chronic inflammation (high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) > 1.0 mg/L) replaced four daily servings of refined grain food products with bran-enriched purple or regular whole wheat convenience bars (~ 41-45 g fiber, daily) for 8 weeks in a randomized, single-blind parallel arm study where body weight was maintained. Anthropometrics, blood markers of inflammation, oxidative stress, and lipemia and metabolites of anthocyanins and phenolic acids were compared at Days 1, 29 and 57 using repeated measures analysis of variance within groups and analysis of covariance between groups at Day 57, with Day 1 as a covariate. A significant reduction in interleukin-6 and increase in adiponectin were observed within the purple wheat (PW) group. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α was lowered in both groups and ferulic acid concentration increased in the regular wheat (RW) group. Comparing between wheats, only plasma TNF-α and glucose differed significantly (P<0.05), i.e. TNF-α and glucose decreased with RW and PW, respectively. Consumption of PW or RW products showed potential to improve plasma markers of inflammation and oxidative stress in participants with evidence of chronic inflammation, with modest differences observed based on type of wheat.