Browsing by Author "Chong, M.F."

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    Biomarkers of fruit and vegetable consumption: findings from the FLAVURS study
    (Cambridge University Press, 2011-10-14) Alimbetov, Dauren; Jin, Yannan; George, T.W.; Chong, M.F.; Spencer, J.P.E.; Gordon, M.H.; Lovegrove, J.A.
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    Flavonoid-rich fruit and vegetables improve microvascular reactivity and inflammatory status in men at risk of cardiovascular diseases—FLAVURS: a randomised controlled trial
    (Oxford University Press, 2014-01-22) Macready, A.L.; George, T.W.; Chong, M.F.; Alimbetov, Dauren; Jin, Yannan; Vidal, Alberto; Spencer, J.P.E.; Kennedy, O.B.; Tuohy, K.M.; Minihane, A.; Gordon, M.H.; Lovegrove, J.A.
    ackground: Observed associations between increased fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, particularly those F&Vs that are rich in flavonoids, and vascular health improvements require confirmation in adequately powered randomized controlled trials. Objective: This study was designed to measure the dose-response relation between high-flavonoid (HF), low-flavonoid (LF), and habitual F&V intakes and vascular function and other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk indicators. Design: A single-blind, dose-dependent, parallel randomized controlled dietary intervention study was conducted. Male and female low-F&V consumers who had a ≥1.5-fold increased risk of CVD (n = 174) were randomly assigned to receive an HF F&V, an LF F&V, or a habitual diet, with HF and LF F&V amounts sequentially increasing by 2, 4, and 6 (+2, +4, and +6) portions/d every 6 wk over habitual intakes. Microvascular reactivity (laser Doppler imaging with iontophoresis), arterial stiffness [pulse wave velocity, pulse wave analysis (PWA)], 24-h ambulatory blood pressure, and biomarkers of nitric oxide (NO), vascular function, and inflammation were determined at baseline and at 6, 12, and 18 wk. Results: In men, the HF F&V diet increased endothelium-dependent microvascular reactivity (P = 0.017) with +2 portions/d (at 6 wk) and reduced C-reactive protein (P = 0.001), E-selectin (P = 0.0005), and vascular cell adhesion molecule (P = 0.0468) with +4 portions/d (at 12 wk). HF F&Vs increased plasma NO (P = 0.0243) with +4 portions/d (at 12 wk) in the group as a whole. An increase in F&Vs, regardless of flavonoid content in the groups as a whole, mitigated increases in vascular stiffness measured by PWA (P = 0.0065) and reductions in NO (P = 0.0299) in the control group. Conclusion: These data support recommendations to increase F&V intake to ≥6 portions daily, with additional benefit from F&Vs that are rich in flavonoids, particularly in men with an increased risk of CVD. This trial was registered at www.controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN47748735.
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    Impact of increasing doses of flavonoid-rich and flavonoid-poor fruits and vegetables on antioxidant status in humans – FLAVURS study
    (Cambridge University Press, 2010-11-09) Jin, Yannan; George, T.W.; Chong, M.F.; Minihane, A.; Gordon, M.H.; Lovegrove, J.A.
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    Impact of the quantity and flavonoid content of fruits and vegetables on markers of intake in adults with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease: The FLAVURS Trial
    (Springer, 2012-04-03) Chong, M.F.; George, T.W.; Alimbetov, Dauren; Jin, Yannan; Weech, M.; Macready, A.L.
    Purpose Limited robust randomised controlled trials investigating fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake in people at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) exist. We aimed to design and validate a dietary strategy of increasing flavonoid-rich versus flavonoid-poor F&V consumption on nutrient biomarker profile. Methods A parallel, randomised, controlled, dose–response dietary intervention study. Participants with a CVD relative risk of 1.5 assessed by risk scores were randomly assigned to one of the 3 groups: habitual (control, CT), high-flavonoid (HF) or low-flavonoid (LF) diets. While the CT group (n = 57) consumed their habitual diet throughout, the HF (n = 58) and LF (n = 59) groups sequentially increased their daily F&V intake by an additional 2, 4 and 6 portions for 6-week periods during the 18-week study. Results Compliance to target numbers and types of F&V was broadly met and verified by dietary records, and plasma and urinary biomarkers. Mean (±SEM) number of F&V portions/day consumed by the HF and LF groups at baseline (3.8 ± 0.3 and 3.4 ± 0.3), 6 weeks (6.3 ± 0.4 and 5.8 ± 0.3), 12 weeks (7.0 ± 0.3 and 6.8 ± 0.3) and 18 weeks (7.6 ± 0.4 and 8.1 ± 0.4), respectively, was similar at baseline yet higher than the CT group (3.9 ± 0.3, 4.3 ± 0.3, 4.6 ± 0.4, 4.5 ± 0.3) (P = 0.015). There was a dose-dependent increase in dietary and urinary flavonoids in the HF group, with no change in other groups (P = 0.0001). Significantly higher dietary intakes of folate (P = 0.035), non-starch polysaccharides (P = 0.001), vitamin C (P = 0.0001) and carotenoids (P = 0.0001) were observed in both intervention groups compared with CT, which were broadly supported by nutrient biomarker analysis. Conclusions The success of improving nutrient profile by active encouragement of F&V intake in an intervention study implies the need for a more hands-on public health approach.
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    Introduction of plasma vitamin C and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power into a combined biomarker with plasma carotenoids increases the association with fruit and vegetable intake
    (Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2015-04-15) Jin, Yannan; Gordon, Mike; Alimbetov, Dauren; Chong, M.F.; George, T.W.; Spencer, J.P.E.
    Monitoring of fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake is fraught with difficulties. Available dietary assessment methods are associated with considerable error and use of biomarkers offers an attractive alternative(1). Few studies to date have examined the use of plasma biomarkers to monitor or predict F&V intake of volunteers consuming a wide range of intake from both habitual F&V and manipulated diets. This study combined plasma vitamin C and carotenoid concentrations with Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) as an integrated biomarker of F&V intake and compared the predictive powers of each single and integrated biomarker for F&V intake. Data from a randomized, controlled, dietary intervention study (FLAVURS) (n = 154) in which the test groups had observed sequential increases of 2.3, 3.2 and 4.2 portions of F&V every 6-wk across an 18-wk period was used in this study. A modified integrated plasma biomarker was devised which included plasma vitamin C, total carotenoids and FRAP values, and this gave a better correlation with F&V intake (r = 0.516, P < 0.001) than the individual biomarkers (r = 0.332, P < 0.001; r = 0.417, P < 0.001; r = 0.136, P = 0.099 respectively). Inclusion of urinary potassium concentration did not significantly improve the correlation. The modified integrated plasma biomarker more accurately predicted F&V intake to within 2 portions of the actual intake in 54.3 ± 4.9% of the population compared with plasma carotenoid concentration (48.3 ± 11.3%), although this difference did not reach statistical significance (P > 0.05). Either plasma carotenoid concentration or the integrated biomarker could be used to distinguish high and low F&V consumers.
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    A Novel Combined Biomarker including Plasma Carotenoids, Vitamin C, and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power Is More Strongly Associated with Fruit and Vegetable Intake than the Individual Components
    (Oxford University Press, 2014-09-17) Jin, Yannan; Gordon, Mike; Alimbetov, Dauren; Chong, M.F.; George, T.W.; Spencer, J.P.E.
    Monitoring of fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake is fraught with difficulties. Available dietary assessment methods are associated with considerable error and use of biomarkers offers an attractive alternative. Few studies to date have examined the use of plasma biomarkers to monitor or predict F&V intake of volunteers consuming a wide range of intake from both habitual F&V and manipulated diets. This study combined plasma vitamin C and carotenoid concentrations with Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) as an integrated biomarker of F&V intake and compared the predictive powers of each single and integrated biomarker for F&V intake. Data from a randomized, controlled, dietary intervention study (FLAVURS) (n = 154) in which the test groups had observed sequential increases of 2.3, 3.2 and 4.2 portions of F&V every 6-wk across an 18-wk period was used in this study. A modified integrated plasma biomarker was devised which included plasma vitamin C, total carotenoids and FRAP values, and this gave a better correlation with F&V intake (r = 0.516, P = 0.000) than the individual biomarkers (r = 0.332, P = 0.000; r = 0.417, P = 0.000; r = 0.136, P = 0.099 respectively). Inclusion of urinary potassium concentration did not significantly improve the correlation. The modified integrated plasma biomarker more accurately predicted F&V intake to within 2 portions of the actual intake in 54.3 ± 4.9% of the population compared with plasma carotenoid concentration (48.3 ± 11.3%), although this difference did not reach statistical significance. Either plasma carotenoid concentration or the integrated biomarker could be used to distinguish high and low F&V consumers.