Coca-Cola shows interest for polyphenol-rich beverages
10 Jun 2010
J. Valverde
A study recently, funded by Coca-Cola and published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research shows that polyphenol-rich drinks and juices such as green tea, apple cider, orange juice and coffee could be good carriers for delivering antioxidants into blood stream.
Polyphenols from this type of beverages have been shown to be bioavailable into humans. In addition, the study showed that no major interaction occurs between polyphenols, therefore mixtures of these drinks or mixtures of poly-phenols could be tailor made to optimize their properties. In order words that the results obtained in this study could be transferable to other specific combinations of juices or beverages. Beverages could be used as carrier to deliver health promoting compounds such as phenolics into the diet.
This study marks an important milestone on the research for the mechanism of action of polyphenols, as a critical point of the study of phytochemicals is to determine if the body actually absorbs these compounds once it has ingested them or if it excretes them straight away.
In this study Coca-Cola Company has tightly worked with Alan Crozier's team in the University of Glasgow.
Around ten volunteers were asked to consume a diet poor in flavonoids before start drinking the poly-phenol rich beverages. No difference was observed amongst volunteers that consumed different juices (tea, orange juice apple cider of coffee).
Coca Cola Company has shown in the past interested for the functional food market when lauched a Poly-Phenol enriched version of their famous drink in France a couple of years ago.
For further details on this study please check:
Gina, B.; William, M.; Adam, M.; Michael, E. J. L.; Susan, A. R.; Alan, C., Bioavailability of multiple components following acute ingestion of a polyphenol-rich juice drink. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123491109/abstract
