Impacts of Omega-3-PUFA Enriched Chicken-meat and Eggs in Healthy Humans

Summary

Eating oily fish containing long chain seafood-derived omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) protects against heart attacks and strokes. Hence most national and international guidelines now recommend that adults eat at least 2 servings per week of oily fish. However uptake of these recommendations is poor - many people do not eat seafood at all. A number of factors probably contribute to this poor compliance with guidelines; limited availability and costs of oily fish; distaste for oily fish; and concern about toxins in such fish. An Irish company, Devenish Nutrition, offers a possible alternative solution - by feeding omega-3 PUFA-enriched feeds to chicken, Devenish Nutrition have demonstrated that the resultant chicken meat and eggs are enriched in omega-3 PUFAs. A recently completed small study, with 30 participants, showed that 5 weeks of eating omega-3 PUFA enriched chicken resulted in increased blood levels of omega-3 PUFAs. There were also beneficial effects on blood pressure and on platelet stickiness. This study will be larger (including 160 participants) and longer in duration (6 months). It will be a double-blind, controlled, randomized study. This will allow testing whether eating omega-3 PUFA enriched chicken-meat regularly over a 6 month period, results in even greater increments in blood levels of omega-3 PUFAs, and in greater beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk factors. Beneficial effects of eating omega-3 PUFA enriched eggs will also be assessed.

Conditions

• Healthy Diet

Interventions

OTHER

Control Chicken-meat

OTHER

Control Eggs

OTHER

Omega-3-PUFA Enriched Chicken-meat

OTHER

Omega-3PUFA Enriched Eggs

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Devenish Nutrition, Belfast, United Kingdom.

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Beaumont Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• University College Dublin

  collaborator OTHER

• Alice Stanton

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alice V Stanton, MB PhD · Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-02-01

Primary Completion

2018-08-27

Completion

2020-06-30

Countries

• Ireland

Study Locations