2.2. Study Design
endotoxemia, dairy milk beverage, weight loss, MEB
ENDOTOXEMIA
Eligible participants were randomized to complete the double-blind crossover trial in which they were provided a eucaloric diet for 2 weeks that contained 3 daily servings (250 mL/serving) of a specially formulated bovine dairy milk beverage that was enriched with MFGM (MEB) or a comparator beverage (COMP) that was matched in macronutrients and prepared with soy phospholipids (lecithin). The treatment order was assigned by simple randomization generated by R software (R 3.6.3). Each two-week treatment period was separated by a two-week washout to test the hypothesis that MEB compared with COMP would decrease serum endotoxin (primary outcome) by improving gut barrier function.An intervention period of 2 weeks was selected to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activities of MEB without the potential confounding effects of weight loss, which is more likely to occur in a longer-term study [On day 13, a high-fat/high-carbohydrate test meal was administered to induce acute endotoxemia [