Abstract
Post-prandial lipemia, glycemia and oxidative stress may affect the outcome of cardiovascular disease. It has been investigated that the enhancement of spread cheese with mountain tea (Sideritis sp.) and orange peel extract, may reduce post-prandial metabolic biomarkers in healthy volunteers. The purpose of the present pilot study was to investigate the possible post-prandial bioactivity of such a spread cheese. In the framework of cross-over design, nine healthy volunteers 20–30 years old, consumed a meal, rich in fat and carbohydrates (80 g white bread, 40 g butter and 30 g full fat spread cheese). After a week washout period, the same volunteers consumed the same meal with the spread cheese, enhanced with 6% mountain tea–dried orange peel extract. Blood sampling took place before, 1.5, 3 and 5 h after meal consumption. Total plasma antioxidant capacity, serum lipids, glucose, uric acid and anticoagulant activity were measured at each time point. There was a statistically significant increase in the antioxidant capacity of plasma 3 h after the meal consumption in the presence of cheese enhanced with extract, compared to the consumption of conventional cheese (p < 0.05). The increase rate of glucose and triglycerides showed a decreasing tendency, 1.5 h after eating the meal with the extract. The remaining biomarkers did not show statistically significant differences (p > 0.05). More studies in a larger sample are needed to draw safer conclusions about the effect of extract on metabolic biomarkers, such as oxidative stress, lipemia and glycemia.