Short-Term Hemodynamic Effects of Modern Wheat Products Substitution in Diet with Ancient Wheat Products: A Cross-Over, Randomized Clinical Trial

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 10; no. 11; p. 1666
• Main Authors: Cicero, Arrigo F. G., Fogacci, Federica, Veronesi, Maddalena, Grandi, Elisa, Dinelli, Giovanni, Hrelia, Silvana, Borghi, Claudio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 04.11.2018
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Alanine Transaminase - blood; Anthropometry; anti-inflammatory activity; antioxidants; Aspartate Aminotransferases - blood; bioactive compounds; blood glucose; Blood Pressure; Cholesterol - blood; Cross-Over Studies; diastolic blood pressure; Diet; Double-Blind Method; durum wheat; fasting; Female; foods; Hemodynamics; Humans; Hypertension; legumes; lipid transfer proteins; Male; Middle Aged; randomized clinical trials; systolic blood pressure; triacylglycerols; Triglycerides - blood; Triticum - chemistry; Uric Acid - blood; volunteers; ancient wheat; blood pressure; randomized clinical trial; bioactive peptide; non-specific lipid-transfer protein type 2; endothelial reactivity
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu10111666

Recent evidence suggests that bioactive compounds isolated from cereals and legumes could exert some metabolic and vascular effects in humans. Due to the recent identification of a non-specific lipid transfer protein (nsLTP2) in wheat with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, we aimed to comparatively test the hemodynamic and metabolic effects of ancient wheat foodstuffs (made of organic KAMUT® khorasan wheat) or modern wheat ones, made of a mixture of organic modern commercial durum (T. durum) varieties and soft wheat (T. aestivum), with different nsLTP2 content. Thus, we carried out a randomized, cross-over clinical trial on 63 non-diabetic healthy volunteers (aged 40–70 years) with systolic blood pressure (SBP) 130–139 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) 85–90 mmHg (pre-hypertensive/borderline high pressure subjects). Each treatment period lasted four weeks. After ancient wheat foodstuffs intake, subjects experienced a significant improvement in triglycerides (−9.8% vs. baseline and −14.5% versus modern wheat), fasting plasma glucose (−4.3% versus baseline and −31.6% versus modern wheat), diurnal SBP (−3.1% vs. baseline and –30.2% vs. modern wheat) and nocturnal SBP (−3.2% vs. baseline and −36.8% vs. modern wheat), and pulse volume change (+4.2% vs. baseline and +2.3% vs. modern wheat) (p < 0.05 vs. baseline and versus modern wheat foodstuffs intake). Therefore, our findings show that substituting modern wheat products in diet with ancient wheat ones, might exert a mild improvement in 24-h SBP and endothelial reactivity in pre-hypertensive healthy subjects.