A world-first clinical trial delivered by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, on behalf of Humanativ, has shown that the regular consumption of naturally enriched Omega-3 chicken and eggs can improve Omega-3 PUFA levels and also lower both blood pressure and heart rate – all of which are likely to lead to substantial human health benefits including protection from heart attacks, strokes, cognitive decline, dementia and depression.
The results of the study were published on September 22nd 2020 in Scientific Reports (one of Nature’s Research Journals),* and are briefly described here.
Led by Professor Alice Stanton, Professor of Cardiovascular Therapeutics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Director of Human Health at Devenish, a double blind randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted between 2015 and 2018 to study the impact of eating chicken meat and eggs naturally enriched with algae sourced Omega-3 PUFAs. The study was conducted over 6 months with 161 healthy participants randomized to eat:
Regular consumption of Omega-3 PUFA enriched chicken meat and eggs provided 120mg/day of EPA and DHA (45% of daily recommended intake). This resulted in significant increases in red blood cell (RBC) levels of Omega-3 PUFAs, and a substantial shift in the distribution of the Omega-3 index in this healthy Irish population – numbers of subjects with a very high-risk Omega-3 index (index<4%) were more than halved amongst those that ate both enriched foods (see below figure). Furthermore, eating the enriched foods resulted in clinically relevant reductions in diastolic blood pressure and heart rate.
The authors concluded that regular consumption of Omega-3 PUFA enriched chicken meat and eggs resulted in;
Therefore, Omega-3 PUFA enriched chicken meat and eggs (enriched using Devenish OmegaPro) offers consumers an attractive additional/alternative source of long chain Omega-3 PUFAs.
*Source: Stanton et al., 2020 Omega-3 index and blood pressure responses to eating foods naturally enriched with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: a randomized controlled trial. Scientific Reports 10, 15444. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71801-5