A four-week dietary intervention with mycoprotein-containing food products reduces serum cholesterol concentrations in community-dwelling, overweight adults: A randomised controlled trial

Background: Substituting dietary meat and fish for mycoprotein, a fungal-derived food source rich in protein and fibre, decreases circulating cholesterol concentrations in laboratory-controlled studies. However, whether these findings can be translated to a home-based setting, and to decrease cholesterol concentrations in overweight and hypercholesterolemic individuals, remains to be established. Objective: We investigated whether a remotely-delivered, home-based dietary intervention of mycoprotein-containing food products would affect various circulating cholesterol moieties and other markers of cardio-metabolic health in overweight (BMI >27.5 kg & sdot;m(-2)) and hypercholesterolaemic (>5.0 mmol & sdot;L-1) adults. Methods: Seventy-two participants were randomized into a controlled, parallel-group trial conducted in a free-living setting, in which they received home deliveries of either meat/fish control products (CON; n = 39; BMI 33 +/- 1 kg & sdot;m(-2); 13 males, 26 females) or mycoprotein-containing food products (MYC; n = 33; BMI 32 +/- 1 kg & sdot;m(-2); 13 males, 20 females) for 4 weeks. Fingertip blood samples were collected and sent via postal service before and after the dietary intervention period and analysed for concentrations of serum lipids, blood glucose and c-peptide. Results: Serum total cholesterol concentrations were unchanged throughout the intervention in CON, but decreased by 5 +/- 2 % in MYC (from 5.4 +/- 0.2 to 5.1 +/- 0.2 mmol & sdot;L-1; P < 0.05). Serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were also unchanged in CON, but decreased in MYC by 10 +/- 3 % and 6 +/- 2 % (both by 0.3 +/- 0.1 mmol & sdot;L-1; P < 0.05). Serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and free triglyceride concentrations were unaffected in CON or MYC. Post-intervention, MYC displayed lower mean blood glucose (3.7 +/- 0.2 versus 4.3 +/- 0.2 mmol & sdot;L-1) and c-peptide (779 +/- 76 vs. 1064 +/- 86 pmol & sdot;L-1) concentrations (P < 0.05) vs. CON. Conclusions: We show that a home-based dietary intervention of mycoprotein-containing food products effectively lowers circulating cholesterol concentrations in overweight, hypercholesterolemic adults. This demonstrates that mycoprotein consumption is a feasible and ecologically valid dietary strategy to improve markers of cardio-metabolic health in an at-risk population under free living conditions. Clinical trial registration: NCT04773483 (https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04773483). (c) 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).