Abstract
Almond consumption is associated with ameliorations in obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension,
and hyperglycemia. The hypothesis of this 12-week randomized crossover clinical trial
was that almond consumption would improve glycemic control and decrease the risk for
cardiovascular disease in 20 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)
(9 male, 11 female; 58 years old; body mass index, 26 kg/m2) with mild hyperlipidemia. After a 2-week run-in period, patients were assigned to
either a control National Cholesterol Education Program step II diet (control diet)
or an almond diet for 4 weeks, with a 2-week washout period between alternative diets.
Almonds were added to the control diet to replace 20% of total daily calorie intake.
Addition of approximately 60 g almonds per day increased dietary intakes of fiber,
magnesium, polyunsaturated fatty acid, monounsaturated fatty acid, and vitamin E.
Body fat determined with bioelectrical impedance analysis was significantly lower
in patients consuming almonds (almonds vs control: 29.6% vs 30.4%). The almond diet
enhanced plasma α-tocopherol level by a median 26.8% (95% confidence intervals, 15.1-36.6) compared
with control diet. Furthermore, almond intake decreased total cholesterol, low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol, and the ratio of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density
lipoprotein cholesterol by 6.0% (1.6-9.4), 11.6% (2.8-19.1), and 9.7% (0.3-20.9),
respectively. Plasma apolipoprotein (apo) B levels, apo B/apo A-1 ratio, and nonesterified
fatty acid also decreased significantly by 15.6% (5.1-25.4), 17.4% (2.8-19.9), and
5.5% (3.0-14.4), respectively. Compared with subjects in the control diet, those in
the almond diet had 4.1% (0.9-12.5), 0.8% (0.4-6.3), and 9.2% (4.4-13.2) lower levels
of fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance
index, respectively. Our results suggested that incorporation of almonds into a healthy
diet has beneficial effects on adiposity, glycemic control, and the lipid profile,
thereby potentially decreasing the risk for cardiovascular disease in patients with
type 2 diabetes mellitus.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 26, 2010
Accepted:
April 12,
2010
Received:
January 13,
2010
Footnotes
Institutional approval: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Taipei Medical University, and written consent was obtained from each participant prior to participation in the study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
