An Egg Based Breakfast Maintains Flexibility in Older Adults

May 22, 2017 updated by: Barbara Gower, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Aging is associated with an increased risk for metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is reason to believe that the time of day when specific food groups are eaten affects this risk. The investigators propose that eating foods made up of fat and protein (such as eggs) in the morning for breakfast, rather than foods made up of carbohydrates (such as white-bread toast or sugary cereal) may promote a healthier metabolism. This is because the body is designed to burn fat during times of fasting, such as overnight, during sleep. Thus, the body is not prepared to burn sugar early in the morning, when most people eat breakfast. Studies with mice have shown that a sugary breakfast meal inhibits the ability of the body to burn fat for the entire day. In contrast, a breakfast meal with more fat enabled the animals to burn fat as well as other fuels throughout the day. The ability to burn fat is thought to minimize risk for obesity, as well as related diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The purpose of this study is to determine if, in older adult humans, consumption of a lower-carbohydrate breakfast meal (relative to a higher-carbohydrate meal) is associated with a healthier metabolism.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

33

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

55 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • • Age 55-75

    • Body mass index 24-29 kg/m2

Exclusion Criteria:

  • • Current practice of greater than 2h/wk of moderate intentional exercise

    • Uncontrolled diabetes
    • Unwillingness to eat study diets
    • Use of any medication known to affect metabolism
    • History of eating disorder
    • Difficulty chewing and swallowing solid food
    • Digestive diseases
    • Cognitive impairment
    • Depression
    • Recent weight change (+/- 10 lbs. in the last 12 mo.)
    • Poorly controlled blood pressure (SBP > 159 or DBP >95 mm Hg)
    • History of non-skin cancer in the last 5 y
    • Cardiovascular disease event in the past 6 mo.
    • Severe pulmonary disease
    • Renal failure
    • Major liver dysfunction (elevation of liver transaminases >3x normal in past 2 y; current/recent smoker (within 6 mo.)
    • Use of estrogen or testosterone replacement therapy
    • Current use of oral corticosteroids >5 days/month on average
    • Current use of medications for treatment of psychosis or manic-depressive illness
    • Use of weight loss medications in the previous 3 months
    • Unable to adhere to diet recommendations

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: High fat breakfast
45% fat 35% Carbohydrate 20% protein
High fat breakfast
Experimental: Higher carbohydrate breakfast
60% carbohydrate 20% fat 20% protein
Higher carbohydrate breakfast

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Respiratory quotient (RQ, a measure of substrate oxidation)
Time Frame: 4 weeks
24 hour respiratory quotient will be measured using whole-room indirect calorimetry
4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Barbara Gower, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 14, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 30, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

October 30, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 15, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 22, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

May 23, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 23, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 22, 2017

Last Verified

May 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2148 (Inselspital)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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