The effects of lupin-enriched foods on body weight, body composition aand cardiovascular disease risk factors

[Truncated abstract] More than a third of the Australian population are now overweight (1). Many strategies have been proposed to fight the obesity epidemic. One approach is to develop foods that can reduce appetite and ultimately energy intake and body weight when included in the diet long-term. Data suggest that a higher protein or fibre diet can enhance satiety and reduce energy intake acutely, and contribute to body weight loss in the longer-term (2-5). Increasing both protein and fibre in the diet can be difficult because popular low carbohydrate, high protein diets tend to have considerably low fibre intakes (6). Thus there are limited data on the effects of regular consumption of diets higher in both protein and fibre at the expense of starch. Protein and fibre can independently increase satiety (2-6), and these effects are likely to result via different mechanisms. .... If consumption of lupin-enriched foods has similar effects on energy intake longer-term, such effects could translate into weight loss. Diets higher in plant protein and fibre may also benefit blood pressure (10-13), serum lipids (14-15), and glucose and insulin metabolism (16- 17). Another 16 week trial by Lee et al (18) showed that consumption of lupin flour-enriched bread reduced 24-hour systolic blood pressure by 3.0 mm Hg. Lupin-enriched diets have also been shown to reduce blood cholesterol concentrations in animals (19-21) and humans (22). Furthermore, acute reductions in postprandial glucose and insulin have been demonstrated with lupin flour-enriched bread consumption (9, 23), but longer-term effects are not clear (8). The effects of a lupin flour-enriched diet on body weight, body composition, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in the setting of weight loss and longer-term maintenance of weight loss have not been investigated.