New Obesity Prevention: Melon Extract?
Melons are known to be great sources of antioxidants. They are also good tropical deserts which can be turned into shakes or power drinks. But in a new study, it shows that melons-particularly their extract, can be a good prevention against obesity.
In a recent study held at the University of Montpellier, it shows that daily consumption of melon extract may prevent obesity, based on an experiment done to hamsters fed with high fat diet.
The commercially-available melon extract called Extramel, manufactured by France’s Bionov, mixed with a high fat diet led to 29 percent decrease in body weight on the hamsters as compared to those fed with on high fat diet. The study is published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“The major novel finding in our experimental conditions, and in comparison to HF, is that Extramel prevented obesity in high fat diet fed hamsters by decreasing body weight, abdominal fat, triglyceridemia, insulinemia, insulin resistance, liver lipids, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and preventing adipokine imbalance,” says the statement issued in the said study.
Melon extract is rich in the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD). This “enzyme of life” was first discovered in 1968, and it is the first antioxidant mobilized by the cell for defense. Scientists think that it is more powerful than any other antioxidant vitamins since it can activate the body’s production of its own antioxidants, such as glutathione peroxidase and catalase.
To conduct the study, the researchers of the University of Montpellier collaborated with the scientists of BioNov, the University Hospital Gui de Chauliac in Montpellier, and INRA, and together they divided hamsters into five groups. The first group consumed the regular standard diet, while the other four had a high-fat diet supplemented by four kinds of Extramel doses: 0, 0.7, 2.8, 5.6 mg per day. Hamsters were used in the research because their development of atherosclerosis has similar characteristics to humans.
It took 84 days of study, and the highest dose of melon extract was linked to a 68 percent lowered triglyceridemia, 35 percent lower lipid levels, and increased levels of adiponectin, a protein hormone that plays a role in fat metabolism. A 41 percent decrease in insulin resistance and 25 percent reduction in abdominal lipids were also found in the experiment.
So can melon extract fight obesity? According to the findings:
“Extramel prevented obesity in high-fat fed hamsters by decreasing their abdominal and liver fat and by preventing adipokine imbalance,” the researchers say. With the said results, melon extract is thus helpful in reducing excess weight via everyday consumption, exercise not included.
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