Issue 171 Item 2 Vegetarian Diet Helps Manage Lipids in Diabetics

A high-fiber, low-fat vegetarian diet helps control lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Julie Chester, RN, and a group from the University of California in Davis, tested the impact of the regimen in 34 patients who followed the diet as part of an overall lifestyle program. She presented their findings on August 26th at the Eighteenth International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Congress.

Other components of the lifestyle program included daily exercise and stress management that involved individual counseling, meditation, and yoga. Dietary management was provided by a registered dietician who is a certified diabetes educator, and medical care was provided by physicians and nurses, as needed.

The low-fat, high fiber, lacto-ovo vegetarian diet provided 65 to 75% of calories as carbohydrates, 10 to 12% as fat, and 15 to 20% as protein. No additional nutritional supplements were prescribed.

Patients were prescribed lipid-lowering drugs to maintain their serum low-density lipoprotein levels below 100 mg%.

Of 36 participants in the trial, 21 followed dietary guidelines that called for a high- fiber, low-fat, vegetarian diet. The remaining 15 did not alter their diet and instead were maintained on a diet similar to that proposed in the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines.

Dietary intakes were estimated by 7-day food diaries recorded by patients.

At 6 months, total cholesterol had decreased by 21.8 mg% in the group following the vegetarian diet versus an increase of 0.2 mg% in the group following the diet similar to the ADA diet. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol decreased by 7.5 mg% versus 3.2 mg% in the two groups, respectively.

High-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol decreased by 0.5 mg% in the vegetarian group and increased by 1.1 mg% in the group on the diet following the diet similar to the ADA diet. Triglycerides decreased by 35 mg% and 52 mg% in the two groups, respectively. The vegetarian group also lost significantly more weight.

“The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends that type 2 diabetics be should be considered at high risk for developing coronary artery disease,” Ms Chester said. “In fact, their risk exceeds 20 percent over a 10 -year period. These patients are advised to maintain their LDL-cholesterol below 100 mg/dL.”

The results, she added, demonstrate that a high-fiber vegetarian diet represents an effective means of controlling lipid abnormalities in type 2 diabetics. She emphasized that the diet is part of a larger lifestyle modification strategy.

IDF: [Study title: The effect of a high fiber, low fat vegetarian diet on lipid control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Abstract 2087]

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DID YOU KNOW:
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