Consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their association with cardiovascular events and cardiometabolic risk factors in Brazilians with established cardiovascular events.

Consumption of food in its natural form has an inverse relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors; however, the relationship between consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains unclear in individuals receiving secondary care for CVD. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the association between the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and the presence of CVD and cardiometabolic risk factors in individuals with established CVD. Baseline data from 2357 participants in a Brazilian multicentre study showed that the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods corresponded to most of the daily caloric intake (69.3%). Furthermore, regression analyses showed that higher consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods (>78.0% of caloric intake) was associated with a lower prevalence of elevated waist circumference (WC1; PR: 0.889; CI: 0.822-0.961; WC2; PR: 0.914; CI: 0.873-0.957) and overweight (PR: 0.930; CI: 0.870-0.994), but also was associated with simultaneous occurrence of coronary and peripheral artery disease and stroke (OR: 2.802; CI: 1.241-6.325) when compared with a lower intake (<62.8% of caloric intake). These findings reinforce the importance of nutritional guidance that considers the profile of the target population and the composition and quality of the meals consumed.

Protective effects of whey protein concentrate admixtured of curcumin on metabolic control, inflammation and oxidative stress in Wistar rats submitted to exhaustive exercise.

This work aimed to evaluate the effects of whey protein concentrate (WPC) admixtured of curcumin on metabolic control, inflammation and oxidative stress in Wistar rats submitted to exhaustive exercise. A total of forty-eight male rats were divided into six experimental groups (n 8): standard diet group (AIN-93M), standard diet submitted to exhaustion test group (AIN-93M ET), WPC admixtured of curcumin group (WPC + CCM), WPC + CCM submitted to exhaustion test group (WPC + CCM ET), CCM group and CCM subjected to exhaustion test group (CCM ET). The swimming exhaustion test was performed after 4 weeks of experiment. The consumption of WPC + CCM as well as isolated CCM did not alter the biometric measurements, the animals' food consumption and the hepatic and kidney function, as well as the protein balance of the animals (P > 0·05), but reduced the glycaemia and the gene expression of TNF-α and IL-6 and increased the expression of IL-10 (P < 0·05). The animals that were submitted to the exhaustion test (AIN-93M ET) showed higher aspartate aminotransferase values when compared to the animals that did not perform the exercise (AIN-93 M) (P < 0·05). WPC + CCM reduced the concentration of nitric oxide, carbonylated protein and increased the concentration of catalase (P < 0·05). Both (WPC + CCM and CCM) were able to increase the concentrations of superoxide dismutase (P < 0·05). We concluded that the WPC admixtured of CCM represents a strategy capable of decreasing blood glucose and oxidative and inflammatory damage caused by exhaustive physical exercise in swimming.