Effect of 6-week Strawberry Supplementation on Insulin Action (STR2)

This study is a single-center, randomized and single blinded, placebo-controlled, 6-week, parallel design study with follow-up to evaluate strawberry-associated chronic improvements in insulin action resulting in reduced whole body insulin resistance and improved glucose tolerance. This study will take approximately 11\~12 weeks. Subjects will follow an extremely limited polyphenolic diet throughout the duration of their participation in the study. The limited diet will begin 7 days before the first study visit and end before the last study visit. Following the polyphenol-free 7-day run in period, at Week 0, subjects will be scheduled to return to the Center for sequence randomization, an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) as well as a Flow Mediated Dilation (FMD) procedure to measure endothelial function. Subjects will incorporate either one of tow Placebo Beverages (PBO1, n=15; PBO2, n=15) or Strawberry Beverage (STR, n=15, an optimal strawberry test dose of 40 g/d) into their diet daily for a period of 6 weeks. Subjects will consume randomly assigned beverage twice per day with their breakfast and dinner meals. All subjects will be asked to come to the Center once a week where they will receive a week's supply of beverages. Additionally, fasting clinical and laboratory variables, anthropometrics, and vital sign measurements will be assessed at each bi-weekly visit at Week 3 and Week 5. Participants will undergo the same procedures at the end of Week 6: fasting blood sample collection for analysis of insulin, glucose, oxidative and inflammatory markers, an OGTT to assess glucose handling, as well as a FMD procedure to assess endothelial function in response to 6 weeks of either the Placebo or Strawberry treatment. Subjects will be required to visit the Center 4 weeks after the end of their intervention period (Week 10), at which time they will undergo their last anthropometrics and vital sign measurements, a 4 hour OGTT, and the FMD procedure.