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Pistachios reduce serum oxidized LDL and increase serum antioxidant levels
Author(s) -
Kay Colin D,
Gebauer Sarah K,
West Sheila G,
KrisEtherton Penny M
Publication year - 2007
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.21.6.a1091-a
Subject(s) - antioxidant , food science , chemistry , antioxidant capacity , medicine , biochemistry
Pistachios have high levels of lutein, beta‐carotene and gamma‐tocopherol relative to other nuts. We designed a randomized controlled crossover feeding study to evaluate the effects of pistachios on serum antioxidant status and serum oxidized LDL in 28 hypercholesterolemic adults. Subjects were fed 3 isoenergetic diets for 4 wk each after a 2‐wk ‘baseline’ run‐in diet (35% total fat, 11% SFA). Diets included a Step‐1 diet without pistachios (25% total fat, 8% SFA), with 1.5 oz/d pistachios (1.5 oz PD; 30% total fat, 8% SFA) and with 3.0 oz/d pistachios (3.0 oz PD; 34% total fat, 8% SFA). The 3.0 oz PD and 1.5 oz PD significantly reduced oxidized LDL from baseline compared to the Step‐1 diet (P=0.001 and P=0.04, respectively). Additionally, subjects receiving the pistachio enriched diets had significant increases in lutein compared to baseline (P<0.05) and significantly higher lutein than the Step‐1 diet (P<0.05). The 3.0 oz PD resulted in greater increases in beta‐carotene (P=0.02) and gamma‐tocopherol (P=0.03) verses the Step‐1 diet. Regression analysis revealed that increases in lutein following the 3.0 oz PD were correlated with the reduction in oxidized LDL (P=0.04), indicating that lutein in the pistachio‐rich diets may improve CVD risk through reducing oxidized LDL. Support: California Pistachio Commission Fellowship 1,2 support: NSERC Partial support: GCRC, PSU (NIH grant M01RR10732)