London, Feb 25 (IANS) Eating a high energy breakfast and a low energy dinner result in better blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes, says new research.
“High energy intake at breakfast is associated with significant reduction in overall post-meal glucose levels in diabetic patients over the entire day,” said Professor Daniela Jakubowicz from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The findings suggest that adjusting diet in this fashion could help optimise metabolic control and prevent complications of type 2 diabetes.
The study included 18 individuals (eight men, 10 women), with type 2 diabetes of less than 10 years duration, between ages 30-70 years.
They compared the results of high energy breakfast with low energy dinner (the B diet) with a low energy breakfast and high energy dinner diet (the D diet).
Despite the diets containing the same total energy and same calories during lunch, lunch in the B diet resulted in lower blood glucose (by 21-25 percent) and higher insulin (by 23 percent) compared with the lunch in the D diet.
“Recommending a higher energy load at breakfast, when beta cell responsiveness and insulin-mediated muscle glucose uptake are at optimal levels, seems an adequate strategy to decrease post-meal glucose spikes in patients with type 2 diabetes,” said Jakubowicz.
The study appeared in the journal Diabetologia.