Impacts of functional foods on metabolic disorders and alteration of intestinal microbiota caused by obesity.
We evaluated the effects of combining oat bran, flaxseedand soy, forming a bioactive food compound (BFC), with a high-fat diet (HFD). Theexperiment lasted 150 days, in which 30 male rats were divided into three groups. Tenanimals consumed a balanced diet. Twenty animals were induced to become obese withHFD. In the last 30 days, ten animals maintained HFD consumption. The other tenconsumed HFD with BFC (HFD/BFC). BFC significantly reduced visceral fat, hepaticsteatosis, and fecal pH. It attenuated body weight, blood glucose, LDL-C, triglycerides,VLDL-C and intestinal damage. It revealed an increase in HDL-C serum, butyric acid,oleic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids in feces. Lactobacillus and Prevotella generaincreased in the HFD/BFC group. We concluded that BFC had a positive effect onchanges resulting from obesity.