Berry meals and risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome

Department of Medicine,Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandBackground/Objectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is commonly associated with obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemiaand type 2 diabetes, and can thus be regarded as the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome. In this study we comparedthe effects of lifestyle intervention with and without industrial berry products, on risk factors associated with metabolic syndromeon slightly overweight women.Subjects/Methods: Sixty-one female volunteers (average age 42.9 years) were recruited and randomized for a 20-week dietaryintervention trial with two parallel treatment groups, one lifestyle intervention group with berry products equaling with anaverage daily dose of 163g of northern berries (berry group, diet 1, N¼31, of which 28 completed the study) and the othergroup with lifestyle intervention only (control group, diet 2, N¼30, of which 22 completed the study).Results: Increased berry consumption as part of the normal daily diet was the only lifestyle difference between the twointervention groups. The major effects achieved by diet 1 were changes in the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) andadiponectin (at P-values o0.001 and 0.002, respectively). A statistically significant difference between the two interventiongroups was the higher decrease in the ALAT value in the berry group (P¼0.003).Conclusions: The 23% decrease in the ALAT value, from 20.29 to 15.66U/l in the berry group may be regarded as nutritionallysignificant by enhancing the liver function. This may contribute positively to the low-grade systemic inflammation in body anddecrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 3 March 2010; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2010.27