Evaluation of antioxidative and diabetes-preventive properties of an ancient grain, KAMUT ® khorasan wheat, in healthy volunteers.

Purpose: Recently, there was an increasing interest on the use of ancient grains because of their better health-related composition. The aim of this study was to evaluate in healthy human subjects the antioxidative and diabetes-preventive properties of ancient KAMUT ^® khorasan wheat compared to modern wheat.
Methods: The study was a randomized, non-blind, parallel arm study where the biochemical parameters of volunteers with a diet based on organic whole grain KAMUT ^® khorasan products, as the only source of cereal products were compared to a similar replacement diet based on organic whole grain modern durum wheat products. A total of 30 healthy volunteers were recruited and the intervention period lasted 16 weeks. Blood analyses were performed before and after the diet intervention. The effect of KAMUT ^® khorasan products on biochemical parameters was analyzed by multiple quantile regression adjusted for age, sex, physical activity and BMI compared to data at baseline.
Results: Subjects receiving KAMUT ^® khorasan products showed a significantly greater decrease of fat mass (b = 3.7%; CI 1.6-5.5; p = 0.042), insulin (b = 2.4 µU/ml; CI 0.2-4.2; p = 0.036) and a significant increase of DHA (b = - 0.52%; CI - 1.1 to - 0.12; p = 0.021).
Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that a substitution diet with KAMUT ^® khorasan wheat products can reduce some markers associated to the development of type-2 diabetes compared to a diet of modern wheat.