Browsing by Subject "Dietary fiber"

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    A contribution to nutritional studies on Crocus sativus flowers and their value as food
    (Elsevier, 2013-08-02) Serrano Díaz, Jéssica; Sánchez, Ana M.; Martínez Tomé, Magdalena; Winterhalter, Peter; Alonso Díaz-Marta, Gonzalo L.; Tecnología de Alimentos, Nutrición y Bromatología
    About 68 kg of flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of saffron spice, while 63 kg of bio-residues composed of tepals, stamens and styles are generated. The proximate composition, minerals, dietary fiber (DF), sugars, anions and organic acids of flowers of saffron, their parts and bio-residues from saffron spice production have been analyzed. Whole flowers have high ash (7.39 mg/100 g), protein (10.07 mg/100 g) and available carbohydrates (61.2 mg/100 g), and are low in lipids (3.16 mg/100 g). Stamens are the flower parts with the highest contents of ash (11.43 mg/100 g), protein (24.05 mg/100 g), lipids (10.73 mg/100 g), total DF (32.2 mg/100 g) and insoluble DF (21.1 mg/100 g), and the lowest available carbohydrates (33.8 mg/100 g) and total sugars (4.3 mg/100 g). The insoluble/soluble DF ratios of floral bio-residues (1.2), stamens (1.9) and stigmas (1.3) are suitable as a balanced source of DF. These results could contribute to the using flowers of saffron as food, as well as the development of new food products from flowers of saffron and the management and exploitation of the bio-residues obtained in saffron spice production.
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    Spinach consumption ameliorates the gut microbiota and dislipaemia in rats with diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019-03-18) Periago Castón, Mª Jesús; Elvira Torales, Laura Inés; González Barrio, Rocío; Hidalgo, Nieves; Navarro González, Inmaculada; Gómez Gallego, Carlos; Masurero, D; Soini, E; Vrhovsek, U.; García Alonso, Francisco Javier; Tecnología de Alimentos, Nutrición y Bromatología
    Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is defined as the accumulation of fat in liver cells, which causes serious health consequences. Animal and human studies suggest that the gut microbiota plays a role in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Here, we investigated whether spinach consumption could ameliorate highfat- diet-induced disturbances in certain intestinal bacterial groups and products derived from their metabolism, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and microbial phenolic catabolites. Attention is also paid to blood lipids and glucose. In the study, a rat model of high-fat-diet-induced NAFLD was used. There were six experimental groups: NC (normal diet), NB (normal diet + 2.5% spinach), NA (normal diet + 5% spinach), HC (high-fat diet), HB (high-fat diet + 2.5% spinach) and HA (high-fat diet + 5% spinach). The rats consumed these diets for five weeks, and after that, they were sacrificed and plasma, urine, intestinal content, faeces and liver samples were taken. Biochemical parameters were analyzed in plasma, phenolic catabolites were quantified in the faeces, urine, plasma and liver by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS, and the analysis of the microbiota and SCFAs in the intestinal content was performed by qPCR and GLC. Consumption of a high-fat diet caused NAFLD and dislipaemia and altered the gut microbiota and the pattern of SCFAs and phenolic gut microbial catabolites. Supplementation with spinach partially ameliorated some alterations induced by the high-fat diet, in particular by increasing the Lactobacillus counts, reducing the fasting glucose and total and LDL-cholesterol and preventing excess liver cholesterol accumulation, thereby improving the values of the steatosis biomarkers.