Lifestyle
Fasting Diet Reduces Risk Markers of Type 2 Diabetes
Apr
Researchers from the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) compared two different diets: a time restricted, intermittent fasting diet and a reduced calorie diet to see which one was more beneficial for people who were prone to developing type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body’s cells don’t respond effectively to insulin and it loses its ability to produce the hormone, which is responsible for controlling glucose in blood.
There were more than 200 participants recruited from South Australia in the 18-month study, which was published in scientific journal, Nature Medicine.
Participants on both the time restricted, intermittent fasting diet and the low-calorie diet experienced similar amounts of weight loss.
The study found that:
“People who fasted for three days during the week, only eating between 8am and 12pm on those days, showed a greater tolerance to glucose after 6 months than those on a daily, low-calorie diet.
“Participants who followed the intermittent fasting diet were more sensitive to insulin and also experienced a greater reduction in blood lipids than those on the low-calorie diet.”
“This is the largest study in the world to date and the first powered to assess how the body processes and uses glucose after eating a meal, which is a better indicator of diabetes risk than a fasting test,” said first author Xiao Tong Teong.
“The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence to indicate that meal timing and fasting advice extends the health benefits of a restricted calorie diet, independently from weight loss, and this may be influential in clinical practice.”
Sources:
Xiao Tong Teong, Kai Liu, Andrew D. Vincent, Julien Bensalem, Bo Liu, Kathryn J. Hattersley, Lijun Zhao, Christine Feinle-Bisset, Timothy J. Sargeant, Gary A. Wittert, Amy T. Hutchison, Leonie K. Heilbronn. Intermittent fasting plus early time-restricted eating versus calorie restriction and standard care in adults at risk of type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial. Nature Medicine, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02287-7
University of Adelaide. “Fasting diet reduces risk markers of type 2 diabetes.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 April 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230406113928.htm>.
Images from:
Photo by Rachael Gorjestani
https://unsplash.com/photos/evsoUV1EyXY
