Biological Evaluation of Cupcake As Affected by Replacing Wheat Flour with Different Levels of Date Fiber

Date fiber, a by-product of date syrup production, is a good source of dietary fiber. Consumption of dietary fibers has many potential health benefits, namely the ability to lower the incidence of constipation and irritable bowel syndrome, lower cholesterol and reduce the incidence of coronary and cardiovascular heart diseases, prevent obesity and diabetes and avoid colon cancer. The current study was designed to produce high fiber cupcakes by partial replacement of wheat flour with various levels (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40%) of date fiber. The effect of feeding hypercholesterolemic rats (rats adapted to standard diet with 2% cholesterol for 4 weeks) with cupcakes containing date fiber on the body weight gain, daily feed intake, feed efficiency ratio, blood glucose, liver functions, kidney functions, triglyceride and lipoprotein was investigated. Body weight gain (21.49-31.64%), organ weights (17.05-31.03%), blood glucose (6.29-18.27%), ALT (8.0-35.38%), AST (6.27-29.1%), creatinine (6.41-21.79%), urea (17.12-31.98%), triglyceride (6.54-15.94%), total cholesterol (3.66-10.2%), LDL (8.31-30.59%) and VLDL (8,21-18.56) were decreased by increasing the level of date fiber in the cupcake. However, HDL values (18.4-63.98%) had an opposite trend. Feeding rats with cupcake diets prepared with date fiber for 4 weeks returned body weight gain, organ weights, blood glucose and ALT in hypercholesterolemic rats to the normal values in negative control rats. However, triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL and VLDL in hypercholesterolemic rats did not return to normal values in negative control rats.