Study design and diet monitoringThe study was designed as a 4 week double-blind, randomised,placebo-controlled parallel nutritional intervention.One week before the beginning of the study thevolunteers had to exclude cocoa and cocoa containingproducts from their habitual diet and three days prior tothe start of the trial were asked to consume a low-polyphenoldiet without energy restriction. After these previouspreparatory days, volunteers were provided everyweek with ready-to-eat meals, which were weekly suppliedby Tutti Pasta S.A (Navarra, Spain). From 50 allocatedvolunteers, 25 subjects received meals supplemented with1.4 g/d cocoa extract and 25 volunteers received controlmeals (the composition of cocoa extract is shown in Table1). The randomisation was performed using the “randombetween 1 and 2” function in the Microsoft Office Excel(Microsoft Iberica, Spain). Boxes in which the meals wereprovided had the same appearance and differed only onthe code label, ensuring the double-blind. Those mealswere consumed within a hypocaloric diet with an energyrestriction of 15%. Resting metabolic rate was calculated bythe HarriseBenedict equation applying the correspondingindividualised physical activity factor, which was calculatedas average daily exercise [14]. The macronutrientdistribution of the diet was 45% of total caloric value fromcarbohydrates, <30% from lipids and 22e25% from proteins.The volunteers were asked to exclude cocoa containingfoods and polyphenol rich foods maintaining theirhabitual physical activity during the intervention. At thebeginning and end of the study, a 3-day validated foodrecallquestionnaire was used to assess nutrient intake,which was analysed using the DIAL software (Alce IngenieriaS.L, Madrid, Spain). To evaluate the adherence to mealconsumption, volunteers had to fill a notebook with the
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