Korean diet prevents obesity and ameliorates insulin resistance in mice fed a high-fat diet

Background: Korean diet has received considerable attention because of the low prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders in Korea. Although the Korean diet has been shown to have health benefits, these effects have been investigated by analyzing individual nutrients or food components. In this study, we used a dietary pattern approach to investigate the effect of the Korean diet on obesity and glucose homeostasis in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD).Methods: C57BL/6 mice were fed the HFD for 7 weeks to induce obesity and then fed either the HFD or Korean diet for the next 7 weeks. The Korean diet was based on food frequency data obtained from the 4th Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and adjusted to have the same energy content as the HFD. Serum insulin and leptin were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and glucose clearance was assessed using the oral glucose tolerance test. Lipogenic gene expression was determined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.Results: The Korean diet significantly decreased the HFD-induced body weight increase and body fat accumulation and improved serum lipid profiles. Hepatic mRNA levels of lipogenic genes were lower in Korean diet-fed mice, which also showed decreased fasting blood glucose, insulin, and leptin levels, and improved glucose clearance. The Korean diet also ameliorated HFD-induced islet hypertrophy and elevated pancreatic insulin level.Conclusions: Korean diet prevented obesity and ameliorated insulin resistance in mice fed a HFD. Therefore, Korean diet may be useful as a therapeutic diet to control metabolic disorders