Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 303 men in the Men’s Lifestyle Validation study according to the dietary and plasma lignan levels^a

Basic characteristics¹

 Enterolactone (nM)

9.4 (4.4)

10.0 (4.1)

36.6 (22.9)^a

56.0 (22.9)^a

29.3 (34.3)

 Lignans (µg/day)

440 (138)

3809 (6996)^a

465 (133)

8826 (15,996)^a

3633 (10,209)

 Secoisolariciresinol (µg/day)

119 (54)

2561 (6866)

128 (54)

7862 (15,970)^a

2957 (10,081)

 Matairesinol (µg/day)

21 (9)

40 (23)^a

23 (9)

45 (24)^a

32 (21)

 Lariciresinol (µg/day)

167 (62)

425 (222)^a

173 (57)

448 (215)^a

301 (206)

 Pinoresinol (µg/day)

134 (72)

560 (777)^a

140 (69)

479 (495)^a

320 (458)

 Energy intake (kcal/day)

2279 (508)

2400 (423)

2176 (416)

2414 (463)

2164 (664)

 Alcohol (g/day)

19.8 (23.4)

20.0 (18.9)

15.1 (16.3)

18.2 (18.4)

18.4 (19.2)

 Age (year)

70.9 (4.5)

70.5 (4.0)

71.8 (4.0)

71.0 (4.2)

71.0 (4.2)

 Total physical activity (MET-hrs/week)

120 (63)

126 (62)^a

112 (58)

118 (51)

117 (56.4)

 White (%)

95.9

96.6

98.5

97.5

97.0

 Smoking (%)

2.2

0.8

2.0

0.0

1.3

 Antibiotics use in last 12 months (%)

27.0

26.5

29.5

23.2

26.6

 Probiotics use ≥ 1time/week (other than yogurt) in last 2 months (%)

7.0

5.6

5.5

8.5

6.9

Metabolic risk factors²

 Total cholesterol (mg/dL)

177 (31.6)

180 (35.9)

187 (38.8)

186 (33.6)^a

182 (35.0)

 C-reactive protein (mg/dL)

2.3 (3.9)

1.6 (3.1)

1.8 (3.2)

1.2 (2.1)^a

1.8 (3.3)

 HDL-C (mg/dL)

52.5 (14.0)

55.5 (13.3)

57.4 (15.2)

56.7 (13.3)^a

55.5 (13.9)

 Triglycerides (mg/dL)

112 (70.0)

99.4 (45.0)

91.8 (42.3)^a

93.4 (50.5)^a

100 (55.9)

 HbA1c %

5.8 (0.4)

5.7 (0.3)

5.8 (0.4)

5.7 (0.3)^a

5.7 (0.4)

 Body Mass Index (kg/m²)

26.4 (4.0)

25.5 (4.0)

25.1 (3.3)^a

24.3 (3.1)^a

25.3 (3.8)

 Metabolic score

13.2 (4.0)

12.0 (3.6)

11.7 (3.8)^a

11.2 (3.6)^a

12.0 (3.8)