The study was published in EBioMedicine, and backs the science behind the company’s new Howaru Shape ingredient, a prebiotic and probiotic blend marketed for weight management formulations.
Supplementation used in the six-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 225 participants were DuPont’s probiotic B. lactis 420 (B420) and the prebiotic Litesse Ultra plydextrose. Dr, Mark Cope, Applied Nutrition Manager at DuPont Nutrition and Health, presented the study’s details and its outcomes at the IPA World Conrgess + Probiota Americas 2017 in San Francisco last month.
A decrease in waist circumference was a hallmark outcome of the study, Cope said. “This is important because when you talk about obesity, you really want to reduce the fat in the abdominal area,” Cope told NutraIngredients-USA.
Healthcare institutions like the Mayo Clinic consider belly fat a ‘more dangerous fat,’ because it can risk cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and high blood pressure, to name a few. The precise mechanism of the prebiotic and probiotic combination needs further study, Cope said in a previous interview.