Diet & Health News Obesity

Flavonoid In Citrus Found To Prevent Obesity

July 15, 2009
By J White

Citrus, in particular grapefruit, has been shown to contain properties that enhance your body’s ability to burn fat. Now, more research is out that points to how a flavonoid, derived from citrus fruits, has been shown to prevent weight gain. In addition, this derivation has also been shown to prevent other signs of metabolic syndrome.

In the study, led by researcher Murrary Huff of the Roberts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario, the researchers looked at a flavonoid, which is a plant-based molecule, called naringenin. This flavonoid is considered to have many effects on human health such as being an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, and a carbohydrate metabolism promoter.

The study centered around feeding a high fat diet to two groups of mice to bring about symptoms found in the metabolic syndrome. By feeding the mice this diet, symptoms such as high cholesterol, insulin resistance, and elevation of fatty acids in the blood developed.

In addition to the high fat diet, one group was treated with the naringenin flavonoid. By feeding this group this particular flavonoid, the researchers were able to prevent the development of insulin resistance by normalizing glucose or sugar metabolism, and correcting the elevations of fatty acids, and cholesterol in the blood.

The researchers also reported that the naringenin prevented the obesity that normally develops from this diet. Moreover, this was done without suppression of the appetite or a decrease in food intake, meaning that all the mice ate the same amount of food and fats.

How did the naringenin prevent this from occurring? The researchers said that they found it worked by genetically reprogramming the liver to burn up the excess fat, rather than going through its normal fat storing process.

They also pointed out that grapefruit has long been linked with weight loss diets. However, the concentrations of the citrus-derived flavonoid used in the study were at higher levels than those that you could get from a typical weight loss diet. So if you were thinking about stuffing yourself with grapefruit to bring about the same result, you may want to hold off on taking that action.

As for the future, Huff said that there next steps are to examine the naringenin properties more, performed more studies, and determine if the results warrant that further action be taken to go to clinical trials, which would determine how safe it is for human use.

Until then, you can increase your personal intake of grapefruit and other citrus fruits. Even though you won’t be able to eat enough to bring about the results in the research, the study has reaffirmed the effectiveness of the properties found in the fruits to aid in weight loss, which means that you can still garner some benefits from the fruit.

Source:
University of Western Ontario (2009, July 14). Citrus-derived Flavonoid Prevents Obesity, Study Suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713114459.htm

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