Assessment of Post-Prandial Effects of a Fast-Food Meal on Inflammatory Markers

现在很明显，高水平的炎症标志物(在我们的血液中测量)与几个严重的健康问题直接相关，包括心脏病、糖尿病和肥胖症。我们经常的饮食选择会影响炎症标志物的水平，尽管我们现在确实知道了我们吃的各种食物和不同的脂肪来源实际上是如何影响炎症标志物的。在美国，很多人每天都在快餐店吃饭，有些人甚至每天都去。一般来说，快餐中饱和脂肪含量较高，单一不饱和脂肪含量较低。即使是“更健康”的选择，比如水果和蔬菜沙拉，也会搭配富含饱和脂肪的调味料。饱和脂肪与高胆固醇水平有关，而单不饱和脂肪被认为有助于降低胆固醇水平。 这项研究的目的是确定与食用低饱和脂肪和高水平单一不饱和脂肪的食物相比，食用快餐(高饱和脂肪)会导致炎症标志物的更大增加和睾酮的更广泛的下降。这项研究是了解饮食脂肪摄入量如何直接影响心脏病、糖尿病和肥胖症的风险因素的第一步。 在三天的时间里，以三天为间隔，健康的成年人接受了口服葡萄糖耐量测试(OGTT)，一顿富含饱和脂肪的食物(类似于快餐)和一顿富含不饱和脂肪的食物(健康脂肪)。将在餐后24小时内定期采集血样(或口服葡萄糖)，以调查这些干预措施对循环血脂、氧化应激和炎症标记物以及睾酮的不同影响。这些研究的发现试图在饮食和动脉粥样硬化风险之间建立联系，这种联系相对独立于循环中的血脂，而更侧重于炎症。 这项研究现在已经完成，所有30名受试者都参与了这项研究，并收集了所有研究样本。我们最近收到了关于分级脂类、促炎细胞因子、炎症标志物、氧化应激标志物和睾酮水平的信息。 我们计划在2010年底之前分析这些数据。

It is now evident that high levels of inflammatory markers (which are measured in our bloodstream) are directly related to several serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Our regular dietary choices can influence the levels of inflammatory markers, although we do now know for certain how the various foods and different fat sources we eat actually affect inflammatory markers. In the United States, a large number of people eat at fast food restaurants regularly, for some, daily. In general, fast food tends to be high in saturated fats and low in mono-unsaturated fats. Even "healthier" choices, such as fruit and vegetable salads are served with dressings loaded with saturated fats. Saturated fat is associated with high cholesterol levels and mono-unsaturated fat is thought to contribute to lower cholesterol levels. The purpose of this research study is to determine the acute effect of eating a fast food meal (high in saturated fat) will result in greater increases in inflammatory markers and a wider decline in Testosterone than eating a meal with low levels of saturated fat and higher levels of mono-unsaturated fat. This study is a first step in learning about how dietary fat intake can directly impact risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Over three days, separated by three-day intervals, healthy adult individuals received an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT), a meal rich of saturated fat (similar to a fast food) and a meal rich in unsaturated fat (healthy fat). Blood samples will be collected at regular intervals over the 24 hours after the meal (or oral glucose) to investigate the different effect of these interventions of circulating lipids, markers of oxidative stress and inflammation and testosterone. The findings of these study attempt to create a connection between diet and risk of atherosclerosis that is relative indipendent of circulating lipids but rather focus on inflammation. The study is now complete, with all 30 subjects enrolled in the study, and all study samples collected. We have recently received information about levels of fractionated lipids, pro-inflammatory cytokines, inflammatory markers, markers of oxidative stress and testosterone. We plan to analyze these data by the end of 2010.