“Dietary polyphenols: modulators of energy and substrate metabolism in obese humans”

Supervisor:

• prof.dr. E.E. Blaak

Co-supervisor:

• dr. G.H. Goossens

Almost 50% of the world-population is overweight, which also causes an increase in overweight related diseases like diabetes. Since dieting and a more active lifestyle is not always successful, we have investigated whether supplementing dietary polyphenols, which are natural plant ingredients abundant in green tea and red wine, would improve health and metabolic profile of overweight men and women.
After 12 weeks polyphenol supplementation, polyphenols stimulated the capacity to burn fat in our muscles. This improvement may contribute to the prevention of obesity and related diseases like diabetes in the long term, which has to be addressed in future research.

Key words:

overweight, dietary supplements, polyphenols, fat oxidation