CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Prosopis alba trees are widely distributed around North of Argentine and Chile. This specie is very valuable for regional economies (Pometti et al., 2009). It provides hard wood for furniture manufacture as well as pods, which are used for mesocarp flour preparation, in this process seeds from pods are discarded as waste materials. Previously, we reported cotyledons from P.alba seeds as source of macronutrients and biologically active molecules. Phenolic compounds were characterized in cotyledons flour (Cattaneo et al., 2014) and antioxidant - anti-inflammatory properties of protein hydrolysate obtained from flour seeds were found (Cattaneo et al., 2016). These properties of P.alba seeds flour make it an excellent product to elaborate functional foods of preventing chronic diseases associate to inflammatory process.The global shift towards an energy rich and sedentary life style becomes obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in a great threat to human health (Wilkin & Voss, 2004). Metabolic syndrome (MS) represents a conjunction of several metabolic disturbances such as abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, decreased levels of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and hypertension. It is clearly associated with obesity (Grundy, 2004). Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, which increases adipose tissue mass and ectopic fat accumulation (Smith, 2015). The quality and quantity of fat consumed in the diet are strongly associated with prevention or improvement of metabolic abnormalities characterizing the MS (Ristic-Medic & Vucic 2013). In general population, there are individuals with normal body weight and metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance and increased visceral adipose tissue (VAT) (Ruderman, Chisholm, Pi-Sunyer, & Schneider, 1998). This subgroup of obese people are known as metabolically obese but normal weight individuals (MONW).

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