FDBusiness.com

A new, one-year, double-blind controlled clinical study shows that cacao-flavonoids and soy isoflavones can significantly improve biomarkers of CVD risk in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes.

The trial, conducted by Peter J Curtis, PhD, et al, funded by a UK-based Charity, Diabetes UJK, and supported byFrutarom, Israel, and Barry Callebaut, was published February, 2012, in Diabetes Care. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of dietary flavonoids on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes on established statin and hypoglycemic therapy.

The clinical trial consisted of 93 medicated postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes. Subjects were randomly allocated to consume 27 g/day (split dose) of flavonoid-enriched chocolate (Barry Callebaut ACTICOA™ chocolate containing 850 mg flavan-3-ols [90 mg epicatechin] and 100 mg of isoflavones [aglycone equivalents)]/day) or a matched placebo.

At the conclusion of this trial, the combined one-year intervention with flavan-3-ols and isoflavones resulted in a significant improvement in biomarkers of CVD risk in postmenopausal type 2 diabetic patients, compared to placebo. These data highlight the additional benefit of dietary flavonoids to standard drug therapy in managing CVD risk in this group of patients.

“We are incredibly happy with the new study results showing that the soy isoflavones in SoyLife®, produced by Frutarom, in combination with cacao-flavonoids could help decrease CVD risk,” says Mira Koppert, Manager of the LifeLine brand extension at Frutarom. “We anticipate these outstanding findings will open new opportunities in marketing SoyLife to supplement makers and food processors and position it as the leading soy isoflavones source in the global market.”

SoyLife has been included in more than 35 proprietary studies in the fields of menopause, bone health, heart health, and cognitive function. “SoyLife stands out in the market in comparison to other soy isoflavones, not only due to its extensive research but also because it is a natural, multi-component ingredient, derived from soy germ, containing not just soy isoflavones but also vitamin E, antioxidants, fibre and many others,” explains Mira Koppert. “These factors and the typical soy germ isoflavone profile of genistein : daidzein : glycitein, which is 15 : 50 : 35 indicate SoyLife is a perfect solution to obtain the health effects associated with soy.” SoyLife is available in concentrations ranging from 3% to 40% and can be used in tablets, capsules, soft-gel capsules, as well as multiple functional food and beverage applications. For more information, visit the new SoyLife website at www.soylife.com.