ONLINE DRIVERS MEDIA

Whipped cream with strawberries - is it actually healthier with pastured cream? Is it less obesogenic, soothes inflammation and increases the oxidation while reducing the storage of body fat?

I guess I could have made two separate articles of the two recent studies from the University of Lyon (Benoit. 2014) and the INRA in Paris (Marsset-Baglieri. 2014), but in view of the fact that there are already plenty of dairy articles at the SuppVersity, I thought, Id pack them into one large "Dairy Double-Whammy Appreciation Article"; and in that I am about to start with something the average SuppVersity reader should know already: "Milk protein fractions moderately extend the duration of satiety compared with carbohydrates independently of their digestive kinetics in overweight subjects."

Well, at least the first part shouldnt be news. The fact that this happens independent of their digestive kinetics, on the other hand, may come as a surprise.
Why? Well, "independent of their digestive kinetics", that means that the satiety effect does not depend on whether were talking about fast- or slow-digesting dairy proteins. Or, practically speaking, it did not matter, if the subjects consumed

• 30g of casein (digested in 6h)
• 30g of whey protein (digested in 2.5h), or
• 30g of whey + casein protein (digested in 4h)

in conjunction with 30g of carbohydrates, the effect, i.e. the effects on  pancreatic and gastrointestinal hormones and the 17min increase in the time it took the subjects to ask for launch.

Figure 1: .Effects of the protein snackv. the control carbohydrate snack on the time period elapsing before the request for lunch in all subjects (n82) (a) and in early eaters (n=41) (b). The satiating effect of the protein snack is represented whatever the type of protein snack as well as in each protein group (Marsset-Baglieri. 2014).

In that, the effect on the size of a subsequent ad-libitum meal depended non-linearly on the proximity between the subjects regular launch-time and the time the snack was ingested. With 32min (vs. only 17min), the satiating effect of  the liquid protein meal was thus significantly more pronounced in the "early eater" who could have consumed their regular lunch within less than 2h after the ingestion of the test "snack".
Now that we know that dairy proteins can help you keep your weight in check, its about time to have a look at the macronutrient, Marsset-Baglieri, et al. simply forgot in their previously discussed study: Dietary fats!

From dairy protein to dairy fat - this is where pasture may matter

The question whether pasture (grass-fed) dairy is healthier, better or what-not is a topic of ongoing discussion among the members of the health and fitness community. While some people believe that the slightly higher amounts of CLA and omega-3 fatty acids, doesnt make a difference, others pretend as if eating conventional dairy would cost you 10 years of your maximal life experience.

Figure 2: Effect of feeding a control (CT), a standard dairy cream (SDC) or a pasture dairy cream (PDC) diet for 12 weeks on the gene expression of different markers of inflammation in the epididymal adipose tissue: (a)IL-6, (b) Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), (c) cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68), (d)CD11c, (e) monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and (f) TNF-alpha normalised to hypo-xanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase (HPRT; Benoit. 2014).

If we take a look at results of a recent study from the University of Lyon (Benoit. 2014), you will realize: The truth lies - as usual - somewhere in-between.

The markers of inflammation, for example, were significantly reduced in rodents who were fed a 20% pasture (PDC) vs. 20% standard dairy cream diet (SDC; see Figure 2). The levels of PPAR-alpha & carnitine palmitoyltransferase in the liver and the levels of UCP2 in the adipose tissue, all three indicative of increased fatty acid oxidation in the liver and fat cells, respectively, increased (not shown in Figure 2).

And although the effects on the tight junctions of the gut (important for "leaky gut" prevention) were non-significant, the increase in the percentage of crypts with Paneth cells, the number of goblet cells per crypt and the expression of MUC-2 in the colon indicate that the pastured dairy had beneficial effects on the intestinal health of the rodents, as well.

Overall, the scientists attest that the replacement of a standard dairy cream with a pasture
dairy cream, albeit as part of a generally unhealthy "high-fat" (=hypercaloric) diet...

• lowers metabolic inflammation - for some markers even below the levels of the "healthy" standard (low fat) rodent diet
• prevents fat mass accumulation, despite increased energy intake - possibly due to an inxrease in lipid beta-oxidation, the pasture cream fed rodents could eat 0.8g/day more of the isocaloric chow and still presented lower body fat stores
• improves the protective function of the intestine - the increase in mucus coat thickness in the colon of the PDC mice might actually also have contributed to the reduced inflammation by decreasing the proportion of lipopolysaccharide crossing from the gut lumen to the systemic circulation

Their study is yet not without limitation, such as the lack of a detailed identification of the CLA isomers, which does not allow a causal analysis of the contribution of differences in the conjugated linoleic acid make-up to the reduction in body fat Benoi et al. observed. Similarly, the amount of beta-sitosterol and desmosterol, polyphenols and flavonoids which varied between the creams, could have figured in, sa well.
Reference:

• Benoit B, Plaisancié P, Géloën A, Estienne M, Debard C, Meugnier E, Loizon E, Daira P, Bodennec J, Cousin O, Vidal H, Laugerette F, Michalski MC. Pasture v. standard dairy cream in high-fat diet-fed mice: improved metabolic outcomes and stronger intestinal barrier. Br J Nutr. 2014 Aug;112(4):520-35.
• Marsset-Baglieri A, Fromentin G, Airinei G, Pedersen C, Léonil J, Piedcoq J, Rémond D, Benamouzig R, Tomé D, Gaudichon C. Milk protein fractions moderately extend the duration of satiety compared with carbohydrates independently of their digestive kinetics in overweight subjects. Br J Nutr. 2014 Aug;112(4):557-64.

Dont forget that cyclists are not the only group of athletes who can benefit from bicarbonate supplementation. Strength trainees who spend hours in the gym and train at high intensities will also benefit!

I know that most of you are into resistance not endurance training. So, before I even get into the discussion of the experimental procedures and the results of the latest study from the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, I would like to point you to an older SuppVersity article which indicates that bicarbonate supplementation is able to Up Your Squat (+27%) & Bench Press (+6%) Within 60 Min" (read more).

Now that youve hopefully put away your prejudices against "that endurance supplement", lets get to the previously mentioned study by Florian Egger, Tim Meyer, Ulf Such, and Anne Hecksteden (thanks to Conrad P. Earnest for bringing this to my attention).
To investigate the effects of BICA supplementation on performance during prolonged, high-intensity cycling to exhaustion in well-trained athletes, the scientists from the Saarland University recruited 6 male and 5 female "well-trained" cyclists (mean ± SD: age 24±8 y, BMI 21.3±1.7, VO2peak 67.3±9.8 ml/kg/min - the VO2peak value tells you that they were fit ;-).

In a double-blind, randomized cross-over design, the subjects underwent two stepwise incremental exercise tests and two constant load tests (with two phases) on an electrically braked cycle ergometer (Excalibur Sport, Lode, Groningen, The Netherlands).

Figure 1: Schematic representation of the general design.Time interval between tests is specified in days (d). Data are presented as means ± standard deviation respectively, with minimum (min) and maximum (max) values (Egger. 2014).

As the overview of the study design in Figure 1 tells you, each test type was completed twice. Once after the ingestion of 0.3 g/kg sodium bicarbonate (yes, thats roughly 24g for someone who weighs 80g and should not be consumed too fast, because otherwise it may trigger diarrhea) or a placebo supplement in form of 4 g sodium chloride that was chosen to make sure that any benefits that were observed were due to the natrium, not the bicarbonate content of sodium bicarbonate.
Both the plain salt and the sodium bicarbonate were solved in 0.7 l water. The outcome measures were simple: Only if the subjects were able to pedal significantly longer until they were exhausted in the standardized constant load test, sodium bicarbonate could be considered to have practically relevant performance enhancing effects (maximum performance in the stepwise incremental exercise test, i.e. maximal workload and VO2peak were used as secondary outcomes).

Figure 2: Blood lactate (BLa) concentrations after ingestion (post drink) and during constant load tests (mean ± SD) for the BICA and placebo trials (Egger. 2014)

The other parameters the scientists measured, i.e. the blood lactate [BLa], pH, and bicarbonate concentration, were merely used determine the mechanisms for the potential improvements in exercise performance.

Speaking of auxiliary measures, if you take a look at Figure 2 you will see that the blood pH dropped significantly right after the ingestion of the bicarbonate supplement and remained "low" throughout the trial and afterwards. An observation that does not come unexpected. Previous trials have after all shown that its the ability of bicarbonate to blunt the high-intensity exercise related perturbations in both blood and muscle acid-base that keeps the maximal work rate up and leads to performance increases compared to placebo supplements.
These performance decrements are caused by the accumulation of hydrogen ions (H+) in the myoplasm and their detrimental effects on myofilament interaction, glycolytic flux and sarcoplasmatic reticulum function. As Egger et al. point out

"[t]he ability of the body to prevent or delay these force limiting processes is determined by the capacity of its intrinsic buffering systems, which counteract the accumulation of H+ both inside and outside the cell," (Egger. 2014)

which explains why the benefits of both beta alanine (which increases the intra-cellular buffering capacity) and bicarbonate are most pronounced in athletes competing in high intensity sports.

Figure 3: Time to exhaustion and maximal workload (total) and maximal workload at the individual anaerobic threshold (IAT) during the bicarbonate and placebo trials (Egger. 2014).

Apropos ergogenic effects: I already gave it away in the headline. The consumption of the bicarbonate supplement lead to immediate increases in the time to exhaustion with 49.5 ±11.5 min being the maximum in the bicarbonate and 45.0±9.5 min being the maximum in the placebo condition.

The maximal workload in the stepwise incremental tests (BICA: 341±66 W; placebo: 339±67 W) and workload at IAT (BICA: 234±5.5 W; placebo 233±5.7 W), on the other hand, did not differ significantly.
References:

• Egger F, Meyer T, Such U, Hecksteden A. "Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate on High-Intensity Endurance Performance in Cyclists: A Double-Blind, Randomized Cross-Over Trial". PLoS ONE 9.12 (2014): e114729.
• Hobson, Ruth M., et al. "Effects of ?-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis." Amino acids 43.1 (2012): 25-37.