Metabolic Syndrome clinical trials at UC Davis

This study, at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC), will focus on whether or not achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight is the most important health promoting recommendation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).The investigators hypothesize that improvement in cardiometabolic risk factors resulting from eating a DGA style diet will be greater in people whose energy intake is restricted to result in weight loss compared to those who maintain their weight. The investigators further propose that during a state of energy restriction, a higher nutrient quality diet such as the DGA style diet pattern, will result in greater improvement in cardiometabolic risk factors compared to a typical American diet (TAD) pattern that tends to be lower nutrient quality (more energy-dense and less nutrient-rich.)

Recently a dietary recommendation of 400 - 600 mg/ day has been proposed for the reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Dietary flavanols can be obtained from the intake of foods such as tea, cocoa, wine, berries and apples. Incorporating Chardonnay Marc (the skins and seeds of Chardonnay grapes) into the diet can be an additional source of dietary flavanols. Like other flavanol-rich foods, Chardonnay Marc provides fiber and polysaccharides that may benefit gut health. This study seeks pilot data on the impact of the daily incorporation of Chardonnay Marc powder into the diet on markers of gut and cardiometabolic health.