Increasing consumption of breakfast cereal improves thiamine status in overweight/obese women following a hypocaloric diet

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the thiamine status in a group of young, overweight/obese women and to analyse the changes in this status produced by two weight-control programmes based on approximating the diet to the theoretical ideal, increasing the relative consumption of vegetables (V) or cereals (C) (especially breakfast cereals). The study subjects were 57 Spanish women with a body mass index (BMI) of 24–35 kg/m2, all of whom were randomly assigned to one of two slightly hypocaloric diets. Dietetic, anthropometric and biochemical data were collected at the beginning of the study and at 2 and 6 weeks. C and V subjects showed a reduction in their energy intake, body weight and BMI, both at 2 and 6 weeks. Thiamine intake and blood thiamine levels only increased with diet C (both at 2 and 6 weeks). 21.8% cf the women, 21.8% had blood thiamine levels <150 nmol/L at the beginning of the study, but at 6 weeks of intervention only 3.7% of the women in diet C, as compared with 30.8% of the women in diet V, showed blood thiamine levels <150 nmol/L. Although both diet C and diet V induced weight loss and a reduction in BMI, diet C would appear to be more useful in the maintenance of an adequate thiamine status.