A traditional Mexican diet decreased oxidative stress, improves carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and modifies the microbiota in a diet‐induced obesity

Abstract

Corn, beans, chia and pumpkin seeds, nopal and tomato were part of the ancient Mexican diet with high antioxidant activity. Nowadays in Mexico there is decrease in the consumption of these traditional foods and an increase in obesity.The aim of this work was to study the effect of the consumption of a traditional Mexican diet (TMD) in a model of diet‐induced obesity (DIO). To induce obesity, Sprague Dawley rats were fed a high‐fat diet+5 % of sucrose (HFD+S) in the water during 6 months. After that, rats were divided in 3 groups (n=6 per group): 1) obese rats fed HFD+S, 2) obese rats fed control diet, and 3) obese rats fed TMD during 3 months. Animals fed TMD decreased body weight, improved glucose tolerance and decrease serum and liver cholesterol triglycerides. These results could be explained by an increase in liver antioxidant enzymes, decrease in liver and brain MDA, increase in liver P‐AKT associated with insulin signaling, increase in energy expenditure and UCP‐1 protein in white adipose tissue, decrease in the expression of proteins involved in lipogenesis such as SREBP1c and FAS in liver, and by modifying the microbiota. These results indicate that the consumption of vegetable protein, functional foods, omega 3 fatty acids and bioactive compounds present in the TMD decreased significantly obesity induced by a high fat diet.