## 3 Results and Discussion
### Oxidized LDL Receptor and Waist Circumference  
In our study, we observed an inverse correlation between waist circumference and oxLDL receptor concentration in the control group on the 10 th day of the study (r = \(-\)0.67; \(p\) = 0.034) (Table 5), but not in the test group. A possible reason for this could be a wider range of waist circumference in the test group.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Control Group**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Test Group**} \\ \hline  & OR & 95\% CI & \(p\) & OR & 95\% CI & \(p\) \\ Age & 1.02 & 0.92–1.14 & 0.684 & 0.85 & 0.63–1.14 & 0.276 \\ Chronic disease & 2.33 & 0.11–50.99 & 0.590 & 0.42 & 0.03–5.71 & 0.512 \\ Medications & - & - & 0.997 & 0.25 & 0.02–3.34 & 0.295 \\ Alcohol & 2.27 & 0.55–9.35 & 0.255 & 0.94 & 0.27–3.28 & 0.922 \\ Physical activity & 1.67 & 0.15–18.88 & 0.680 & 0.57 & 0.03–11.85 & 0.718 \\ Food supplementation & - & - & 0.998 & 0.22 & 0.02–2.45 & 0.219 \\ BMI (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 1.11 & 0.73–1.69 & 0.613 & 0.76 & 0.50–1.17 & 0.212 \\ Waist circumferences (cm) & 0.94 & 0.80–1.11 & 0.464 & 0.94 & 0.82–1.07 & 0.316 \\ Hip circumferences(cm) & 0.97 & 0.84–1.10 & 0.607 & 0.91 & 0.77–1.06 & 0.23 \\ WHR & - & - & 0.549 & - & - & 0.620 \\ Glucose (mmol/L) & 0.13 & 0.00–5.32 & 0.280 & 21.35 & 0.36–1252.45 & 0.141 \\ Cholesterol (mmol/L) & 2.16 & 0.59–7.94 & 0.246 & 2.44 & 0.21–28.26 & 0.476 \\ Cholesterol HDL (mmol/L) & 11.22 & 0.01–12,329.25 & 0.499 & 0.50 & 0.00–95.95 & 0.795 \\ Cholesterol LDL (mmol/L) & 2.27 & 0.50–10.33 & 0.287 & 3.17 & 0.26–38.37 & 0.365 \\ Triglycerides (mmol/L) & 5.32 & 0.12–229.97 & 0.384 & 0.88 & 0.03–22.34 & 0.940 \\ Iron (\(\mu\)mol/L) & 1.10 & 0.87–1.39 & 0.401 & 1.05 & 0.89–1.24 & 0.593 \\ UIBC (\(\mu\)mol/L) & 0.86 & 0.70–1.05 & 0.139 & 0.98 & 0.88–1.09 & 0.711 \\ TIBC (\(\mu\)mol/L) & 0.81 & 0.61–1.08 & 0.145 & 0.99 & 0.86–1.15 & 0.964 \\ Fe saturation (\%) & 1.08 & 0.94–1.24 & 0.264 & 1.03 & 0.94–1.13 & 0.553 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Logistic regression analysis of the prediction of the fall in oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) receptor concentration on the 10 th day of study.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **Total** & **Control Group** & **Test Group** & \(p\) **(Control vs. Test Group)** \\ \hline oxLDL receptor (0 h) (ng/mL) & 0.29 (0.18–0.47) & 0.29 (0.19–0.52) & 0.29 (0.18–0.47) & 0.765 * \\ oxLDL receptor (after 2 h) & 0.42 (0.25–0.48) & 0.37 (0.24–0.45) & 0.45 (0.30–0.60) & 0.276 * \\ (ng/mL) & & & 0.753 ** & 0.917 ** & \\ oxLDL receptor (after 10 days) & 0.42 (0.27–0.46) & 0.43 (0.24–0.45) & 0.37 (0.27–0.50) & 0.744 * \\ (ng/mL) & & & 0.583 ** & 1.000 ** & \\ \(p\) (2 h vs. 10 days) & & & 0.600 ** & \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* Mann-Whitney test; ** Wilcoxon test.  
\end{table}
Table 3: Concentration of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) receptors in control and test group at the beginning of the study and after intervention.  
[PERSON] et al. [51] conducted a study to investigate the effects of two-month supplementation with aronia extract on angiotensin-converting enzyme activity in patients with metabolic syndrome. They showed a slight decrease in BMI (30.9 to 30.4 kg/m\({}^{2}\); \(p<0.001\)) and a moderate decrease in waist circumference (95-93.7 cm; \(p=0.001\)) in the obese population compared to the control group, which showed a sharp increase in both parameters. Several other studies investigating the effects of 300-500 mg of aronia extract per day on overweight/obese patients with metabolic syndrome found no association between oxLDL and waist circumference or change in waist circumference alone [52; 53]. In our study, we did not observe a correlation between BMI and oxLDL receptors, which may be because our participants had normal BMI.