Background: cashew nut is an almond known for its cardiovascular benefits in adults and weight gain effects in malnourished children, as supported by research. However, its impact on overweight children remains unexplored.
Objective: to analyze the effect of consuming biscuits made with cashew nut flour on the blood glucose and serum triglyceride levels of children with overweight/obesity over four weeks.
Methods: a pilot, randomized, open-label clinical study was conducted with 19 overweight children (11 in intervention group 1 [G1] and 8 in group 2 [G2], aged between 7 and 15 years. Over four consecutive weeks, they consumed, daily, three biscuits with 50 % cashew nut flour composition (G1) and six biscuits with 50 % cashew nut flour composition (G2). The biomarkers analyzed were glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and total cholesterol (TC) at baseline and seven days post-biscuit consumption.
Results: post-experiment, the TG (p = 0.153), HDL-C (p = 0.895), and TC (p = 0.122) biomarkers showed no significant changes. LDL-C levels experienced a slight but statistically significant increase of 0.52 % across all participants (p = 0.031). In contrast, non-HDL cholesterol levels saw a minor yet significant reduction of -1.7 % in serum concentration (p = 0.014). Independent of group allocation, the participants' HbA1c and average blood glucose levels significantly decreased by 12.1 % (p < 0.001) and 17.9 % (p < 0.001), respectively (Cohen's Δ = 1, in both instances).
Conclusion: consumption of biscuits containing cashew nut flour by overweight/obese children positively affected the reduction of blood glucose and non-HDL cholesterol biomarkers in both groups, regardless of the formulations used.