Desenvolvimento e avaliação de um suplemento alimentar de baixo custo para idosos: impacto sobre a desnutrição

Abstract

The aging of the Brazilian population follows a worldwide trend of rapid increase and this demographic change requires a multisectoral intervention in order to promote a healthy and active life. Nutritional disorders such as malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency are a common problem at this stage of life. From this perspective, the proposal was to develop a low-cost supplement using by-products from the dairy industry and a Cerrado fruit and test it on animal models and elderly people. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effect of this new supplement and a commercial one on the recovery of nutritional status, metabolic profile, and liver recovery of experimentally malnourished animals and on the recovery of nutritional status of institutionalized malnourished elderly women. Therefore, in the preclinical phase, 48 SWISS mice, after the adaptation period, were submitted to two treatment phases: food restriction, to install malnutrition; and renutrition phase, to evaluate food supplementation. The animals were divided into six groups: Control, Commercial Supplement Isocaloric to Control, Test Supplement Isocaloric to Control, Malnourished, Commercial Supplement Isocaloric to Malnourished and Test Supplement Isocaloric to Malnourished. Throughout the experiment, body weight and food intake were evaluated. Finally, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity tests were performed to evaluate glucose metabolism. The animals were sacrificed by decapitation and blood samples were collected for biochemical evaluation. The liver was removed, weighed, and used for inflammation markers and histological analyses. This study was approved by the Ethics and Experimental Research Committee of The Montes Claros State University. The clinical phase was performed with 25 elderly women aged ≥ 65 years diagnosed with malnutrition or risk of malnutrition by the Mini Nutritional Assessment. They were divided into a control group that received the commercial supplement and a test group that received the new supplement. Both groups were fed its respective supplement diet for 90 days. The results were grouped into two articles. The first article reported favorable effects related to the low-cost test supplement, indicated by all anthropometric parameters evaluated and the final score of the Mini Nutritional Assessment of the elderly. Moreover, we observed increase in serum albumin levels and a significant increase in the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin, and an improvement in the lipid profile in the preclinical and clinical phases. Favorable effects on the new supplement were also observed in the Isocaloric Malnourished Test Supplement group of animals. Weight gain, increased serum albumin levels and decreased triglycerides were observed. In this first article, we demonstrate the benefits of nutritional interventions and certify that the developed dietary supplement presented better results in the recovery of the nutritional status of malnourished elderly women and animals. In the second article, we found that malnutrition induced liver damage, resulting in decreased body weight, increased inflammatory infiltrates, collagen deposition, and increased mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes. The new supplement proved to recover liver damage caused by malnutrition in animal models, presenting similar or superior results in comparison to the commercial reference supplement in the market.