Development of novel seaweed-based ‘English breakfast’ black tea for improved nutrition and cardiovascular health support in postmenopausal women

Oshun Labs为女性健康开发可持续的解决方案，特别关注绝经后健康。由于雌激素减少，绝经后女性需要额外的营养支持，这可能会导致额外的健康挑战。这包括增加深静脉血栓形成（DVT）和心血管疾病（CVD）的风险，这是英国女性过早死亡的主要原因。我们将开发一种富含生物活性海藻提取物的新型茶，为绝经后女性提供更好的营养，以改善心血管预后。这将是一种“英式早餐”红茶，可与流行的日常品牌相媲美，没有明显的海藻气味或味道。英国是一个饮茶的国家，78%的人口喝茶（YouGov，2020）。这提供了一个绝佳的机会，通过一种常见的消费产品提供更好的营养，而不需要显著的消费者行为改变。为了实现这一目标，我们与Abertay大学合作，该大学在食品科学、营养和海藻食品开发方面拥有丰富的专业知识。海藻作为可持续的营养来源具有巨大的潜力，因为它在生产过程中不需要土地、淡水、肥料或杀虫剂。我们将与可持续海藻生产商合作采购我们的海藻，并与经过认证的道德和可持续茶叶生产商合作采购和生产我们的茶叶。日本人传统上食用大量海藻，他们的预期寿命是世界上最高的。海藻特别富含岩藻依聚糖和多酚，据信两者都通过广泛的作用促进长寿，包括抗氧化、心脏保护和免疫调节作用（Murray等人，2018年）。尽管它们具有潜力，但在临床试验中对海藻的研究仍然很少，它们对心血管功能的影响在很大程度上仍然未知，特别是在绝经后妇女中。因此，我们将进行营养干预，以测量该产品对绝经后妇女试验组的抗血栓形成和血管作用，我们将制定生产工艺和开发计划，以实现可扩展的生产，并最大限度地提高积极的营养/通过提供可获得和负担得起的产品，改善绝经后妇女的营养和心血管健康，该项目将通过帮助人们延长工作时间和减轻医疗服务的压力来支持英国经济。通过与英国的海藻和茶叶制造合作伙伴合作，我们将促进和支持英国海藻行业和可持续制造工艺的发展。

Oshun Labs develops sustainable solutions for women's health, with a particular interest in postmenopausal health. Postmenopausal women require additional nutritional support due to decreased oestrogen which can lead to additional health challenges. This includes increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), a leading cause of premature death for women in the UK.We will develop a novel tea enriched with bioactive seaweed extracts to deliver improved nutrition to postmenopausal women to improve cardiovascular outcomes. This will be an 'English breakfast' black tea comparable to popular everyday brands, with no discernible seaweed smell or flavour. The UK is a nation of tea drinkers, with tea consumed by 78% of the population (YouGov, 2020). This provides an excellent opportunity to deliver improved nutrition through a commonly consumed product, without need for significant consumer behaviour change. To achieve this, we are partnering with Abertay University who have significant expertise in food science, nutrition and development of seaweed-based foods.Seaweed has significant potential as a sustainable source of nutrition as it doesn't require land, freshwater, fertiliser or insecticides during production. We will work with sustainable seaweed producers to source our seaweed, and a certified ethical and sustainable tea producer to source and manufacture our tea.The Japanese traditionally eat a large amount of seaweed and their life expectancy is the highest in the world. Seaweed is particularly rich in fucoidan and polyphenols, with both believed to promote longevity through a wide range of effects, including anti-oxidant, cardioprotective and immunomodulating effects (Murray et al., 2018). Despite their potential, seaweeds remain poorly studied in clinical trials, and their effect on cardiovascular function remains largely unknown, especially in postmenopausal women. Therefore we will undertake a nutritional intervention to measure the anti-thrombotic and vascular effects of the product on a trial group of postmenopausal women, which will be used to evidence and support any cardioprotective claims.We will develop a production process and exploitation plan that enables scalable production and maximises positive nutritional/health outcomes by delivering a product that is accessible and affordable.By improving nutrition and cardiovascular health for postmenopausal women, this project will support the UK economy by helping people stay in work for longer and reducing pressure on health services. By working with UK-based seaweed and tea manufacturing partners, we will enable and support growth of the seaweed industry and sustainable manufacturing processes in the UK.