Novel avocado oil-functionalized yogurt with anti-obesity potential: technological and nutraceutical perspectives

Studies on bioactive lipids have been increasing in the last years due to their proven health benefits. The purpose of this research work was to develop a yogurt with bioactive lipids with anti-obesity potential. For this purpose, yogurts were produced with avocado oil in free form or encapsulated as a bigel. The presence of avocado oil enhanced the nutritional quality of yogurts through a reduction (more than 75%) of their atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes. The high nutritional value was particularly evident in samples with bigel, as these yogurts presented eight-fold higher levels of total fatty acids than the yogurts with avocado oil in free form. In addition, yogurts with avocado bigel presented better stability throughout the gastrointestinal tract - results showed a higher recovery percentage of oleic acid (47.2%) when compared to 24% in the yogurts with avocado in free form. The results from the in vitro studies demonstrated that these functional yogurts can increase the lipolytic rate in adipocytes, translated by an increase of ca. 20% in glycerol release in yogurts with bigel. Moreover, the hepatic lipid accumulation in cells subjected to steatosis induced by chloroquine was reduced by 35% in cells treated with yogurt digested samples. These results showed the potential of these functional yogurts to modulate obesity-related metabolism.