No short-term effects of calorie-controlled Mediterranean or fast food dietary interventions on established biomarkers of vascular or metabolic risk in healthy individuals

Marijo Parcina; Maik Brune; Vareska Kaese; Markus Zorn; Rainer Spiegel; Valerija Vojvoda; Thomas Fleming; Gottfried Rudofsky; Peter Paul Nawroth

doi:10.4162/nrp.2015.9.2.165

No short-term effects of calorie-controlled Mediterranean or fast food dietary interventions on established biomarkers of vascular or metabolic risk in healthy individuals

Nutr Res Pract. 2015 Apr;9(2):165-73. doi: 10.4162/nrp.2015.9.2.165. Epub 2014 Dec 10.

Authors

Marijo Parcina¹, Maik Brune², Vareska Kaese¹, Markus Zorn¹, Rainer Spiegel¹, Valerija Vojvoda³, Thomas Fleming¹, Gottfried Rudofsky¹, Peter Paul Nawroth¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine I and Clinical Chemistry, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
² Department of Internal Medicine I and Clinical Chemistry, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. ; Division of Molecular Metabolic Control, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
³ Department of Cellular Immunology, Institute of Immunology, Rockefellerova 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

Abstract

Background/objectives: This study addressed the question whether the composition of supposedly 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' dietary regimes has a calorie-independent short-term effect on biomarkers of metabolic stress and vascular risk in healthy individuals.

Subjects/methods: Healthy male volunteers (age 29.5 ± 5.9 years, n = 39) were given a standardized baseline diet for two weeks before randomization into three groups of different dietary regimes: fast food, Mediterranean and German cooking style. Importantly, the amount of calories consumed per day was identical in all three groups. Blood samples were analyzed for biomarkers of cardiovascular risk and metabolic stress after two weeks of the baseline diet and after two weeks of the assigned dietary regime.

Results: No dietary intervention affected the metabolic or cardiovascular risk profile when compared in-between groups or compared to baseline. Subjects applied to the Mediterranean diet showed a statistically significant increase of uric acid compared to baseline and compared to the German diet group. Plasma concentrations of urea were significantly higher in both the fast food group and the Mediterranean group, when compared to baseline and compared to the German diet group. No significant differences were detected for the levels of vitamins, trace elements or metabolic stress markers (8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine, malondialdehyde and methylglyoxal, a potent glycating agent). Established parameters of vascular risk (e.g. LDL-cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), homocysteine) were not significantly changed in-between groups or compared to baseline during the intervention period.

Conclusions: The calorie-controlled dietary intervention caused neither protective nor harmful short-term effects regarding established biomarkers of vascular or metabolic risk. When avoiding the noxious effects of overfeeding, healthy individuals can possess the metabolic capacity to compensate for a potentially disadvantageous composition of a certain diet.

Keywords: Fast food; laboratory markers; mediterranean fiet; methylglyoxal; oxidative stress.