Chewing the fat: Complex beef lipids for metabolic health Dr Emma - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Chewing the fat: Complex beef lipids for metabolic health Dr Emma Bermingham AgResearch Host Institution

The future of NZ food exports • Commodity vs. added-value • Meat industry “Grow the NZ red meat sector to reach a nominal annual export value of NZ$14 billion by 2025” Meat exports were NZ$6 billion last year Sheep + cattle numbers are decreasing Oct-Feb Mar-Sept Sources: Red Meat sector strategy report (2011); http://portal.beeflambnz.com/tools/export-tool/; Beef+Lamb New Zealand Economic Service

Who will consumers of red meat be? • Who are our consumers? – Who can – and will – pay more? – What will they pay a premium for? • Attributes of ‘niche’ consumers – “Provenance”/Environmental – Health Source: KPMG Agribusiness Agenda (2013) Volume 3 “Evolving a truly consumer-centric industry”

What is red meat? It is more than a cancer scare… It is more than just an iron A serving of meat gives you… source… The “Ironmaidens” Source: Knowles et al 2004 NZ Vet J 52, 342, Beef+Lamb NZ, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

…Chewing the fat…about fat… The fat-fad The war on Fat & Ancel Keys – Father Acknowledging Cholesterol goes of Lipid Hypothesis they got it WRONG global 1984 1961 2014 Good vs bad fats? Grass vs Grain Saturated Unsaturated Complex lipids Omega-3 Omega-6

The grass-fed story • Grass-fed meat has higher – Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (C18:2) isomers – Trans vaccenic acid (TVA) (C18:1 t11) [a precursor to CLA] – Long-chain omega-3 (n-3; DHA, EPA) – Stearic fatty acid (C18:0) [cholesterol neutral fatty acid] • Grass-fed meat has lower – Myristic (C14:0) [cholesterol elevating fatty acid] – Palmitic (C16:0) [cholesterol elevating fatty acid] • Complex lipids? Source: Daley et al 2010 Nutr J 9, 10

What are complex lipids? Bioactive lipids/Polar lipids/Phospholipids • Two main groups: – Glycerophospholipids • Phosphatidylcholine (PC) • Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) • Phosphatidylinositol (PI) • Phosphatidylserine (PS) – Sphingolipids • Sphingomyelin (SM) • Membrane-bound – Plants/animal products

Health benefits of complex lipids • Fatty acids vs . complex lipids? – n-3 PUFA as phospholipids are more effective at “ preserving a healthy metabolic profile ” • Reduce cholesterol absorption – Rodents – Humans (3+ g complex lipids/day) • Dietary source of complex lipids may be important – Milk – Eggs – Meat? Sources: Rossmeisl et al 2012 PlosONe 7, e38834; Noh & Koo 2003 J Nutr 133, 3571; Kellet er al 2013 Eur J Nutr 2013 52, 1169

Red meat contains complex lipids The health impacts of these lipids are unknown Meat sample Lipid class Subbaraj, Fraser & Bermingham, unpublished

COMPLEX LIPIDS FOR ENHANCED METABOLIC HEALTH

The Opportunity • Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death - consumers are aware of the importance of the diet in reducing CVD risk • Cholesterol absorption is a known risk factor in CVD • Milk and egg complex lipids reduce cholesterol absorption – An opportunity for red meat? To show a reduction of cholesterol absorption in consumers who eat meat-derived complex lipids

The Research Hypothesis: “that complex lipids extracted from grass- fed beef reduce cholesterol absorption.” • Assess the distribution of complex lipids in Wagyu beef • Design a ‘healthy hamburger’ prototype containing extracted complex lipids • Conduct a clinical study with our ‘healthy hamburger’ – Blood cholesterol levels – Cholesterol absorption • Draft dossier for high-level health claims

The Outcomes • Demonstrate health benefits of consuming food product with complex lipids extracted from NZ grass-fed Wagyu • Support Firstlight Foods to submit a dossier for a high- level health claim and meet NZ and in-market regulations • Contribute towards Firstlight Foods mission: “to be the home of the best grass-fed meat in the world”

Research progress to date Lipid profiling of NZ meat Aim: to understand the location and concentration of complex lipids throughout the Wagyu carcass PC Progress: Working with FirstLight to understand where we can add value CL PE • Selected animals & tissues for analysis SPL PI • Chemical composition planned (May-July 2016)

The team Drs Bermingham, Craigie, Fraser & Subbaraj Gerald Hickey, Jason Ross, Matt Crowther Prof David Cameron Smith