Introduction:

Soy lecithin has become one of the most widely used dietary supplements with potential to treat obesity.

Objective:

To determine the effect of soy lecithin on body composition.

Material and Methods:

An experimental preclinical pharmacology study was carried out in the Laboratory of Antibodies and Experimental Biomodels (Labex-cim) and the Basic Sciences Laboratory of the University of Medical Sciences of Santiago de Cuba in 2019. Soy lecithin was administered for 30 days, in doses considered as maximum and minimum to two experimental groups of Wistar rats, to be compared with the control group that received regular feeding. Bioelectric variables and indicators of fat mass were estimated by establishing differences between the experimental groups using the Kruskal-Wallis test of independent samples and considering the level of significance less than 5 %.

Results:

Total body water, fat-free mass, extracellular water, and total body fat changed significantly compared to the control and between groups; also, there were variations in fat weight in the main compartments, increasing in the group supplemented at the minimum dose and reducing in the group that received the maximum dose of the product. The phase angle showed reduction in both experimental groups.

Conclusions:

Soy lecithin, depending on the dose, modifies the body composition in rats, the phase angle being an appreciable parameter for nutritional evaluation.

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