Lose weight with Adzuki
Japanese researchers believe that phenol-rich extracts from the adzuki bean – produced by the Vigna angularis plant – may well be effective slimming aids. They base their reasoning on animal and in-vitro studies. We would go a step further: adzuki phenols may have a body recompositioning effect.
Adzuki beans have been part of the diet in Asian countries for centuries. People cook and eat them, but because of their sweetness manufacturers use them as a basic ingredient for cakes. In this industrial process the phenols, which adzuki beans are bursting with, are released and therefore a waste product. The Japanese company Cosmo Foods [www.cosmo-foods.jp] developed an extract based on these phenols.
The extract consists of 16 percent polyphenols, the most important of which are anthocyanidins, protocatechuic acid and quercetin.
Many studies show that phenols inhibit overweight, so the researchers were curious to find out whether adzuki phenols would do the same. Sponsored by the Japanese government they performed an animal study, which will soon be published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
The researchers gave male rats ordinary feed or feed containing extra fat for a period of four weeks. Half of the rats in both groups were given adzuki extract mixed in their feed. The concentration was 1 percent by weight.
Adding the adzuki extract had no significant effect on the animals’ bodyweight, but nevertheless it did have a slimming effect. The amount of fat in the animals’ livers decreased, but the amount in their faeces increased, as you can see in the figure below. This is probably because the adzuki phenols inhibit the production of digestive enzymes in the pancreas, the researchers discovered.
The adzuki phenols also reduced the amount of stored fat [TG] in human fat cells in test tubes. The phenols in chains had little effect [below left]; the free phenols did [below right].
Both the polymer adzuki phenols [above left] and the free phenols [above right] inhibit the production in the fat cells of inflammatory proteins such as MCP-1, Interleukine-6 and PAI-1. The effect on PAI-1 was strongest, as you can see above. Some inflammatory proteins inhibit the uptake and burning of nutrients by muscle cells, and others actually stimulate the uptake of nutrients by fat cells. It’s possible that the inhibition of the inflammatory factors explains the slimming effect on fat cells.
Both the polymer adzuki phenols [above left] and the free phenols [above right] inhibit the production in the fat cells of inflammatory proteins such as MCP-1, Interleukine-6 and PAI-1. The effect on PAI-1 was strongest, as you can see above. Some inflammatory proteins inhibit the uptake and burning of nutrients by muscle cells, and others actually stimulate the uptake of nutrients by fat cells. It’s possible that the inhibition of the inflammatory factors explains the slimming effect on fat cells.
As said, the rats that got the adzuki phenols didn’t lose weight. That could of course mean that the slimming effect of adzuki amounts to nothing. Or might it be that the rats not only lost fat as a result of the supplementation but that they also built up extra muscle tissue?
Far fetched? If you read the articles below you might change your opinion…
