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Use of soy isoflavones for weight management in spayed/neutered dogs
Author(s) -
Pan Yuanlong
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a854-d
Subject(s) - isoflavones , soy isoflavones , medicine , endocrinology
Estrogen plays an important role in regulating energy and fat metabolism, and maintaining normal body composition in both female and male animals. Both soy isoflavones and exogenous estrogen have been shown to significantly reduce body fat accumulation in ovariectomized rodents, indicating soy isoflavones may act as estrogen agonist in regulating energy and fat metabolism, and body composition. Obesity has been associated with many chronic diseases in dogs, and spaying/neutering is among the risk factors for overweight and obesity in dogs. There is no literature concerning the effects of soy isoflavones on weight gain in spayed/neutered dogs. In this study, we fed spayed/neutered Labrador Retrievers with either a control diet (Ctl, n=13) or a test diet containing soy isoflavones (Iso, n=14) that came from soy germ meal. Both diets had similar amounts of dietary protein, fat and caloric density. The dogs were fed 25% more than their maintenance energy requirement. At the end of the 12‐month study, the dogs in the Ctl group gained twice as much body weight as the dogs in the Iso group (5.54 vs. 2.68 kg, p < 0.05). In addition, soy isoflavones‐containing diet did not significantly affect total white blood cells, thyroid hormone profile, and many other blood chemical parameters. For the first time, the results from our study showed that soy isoflavones‐containing diet was very effective in reducing body fat accumulation in spayed/neutered dogs.