High Fibre Low Fat Vegetarian Diet Control Lipids

Diet modification especially using high fibre low fat vegetarian diet can control lipid abnormalities in patients with type 2 diabetes.

In a study in which 36 patients who underwent life style modification that include diet modification, daily exercise and stress management that involved individual counseling, meditation, and yoga.

The high fibre low fat vegetarian diet prescribed in the study 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%.

21 of 36 participants in the trial, followed dietary guidelines that called for a high- fibre, low fat, vegetarian diet. The remaining 15 did not change their diet and instead were kept on a diet similar to that proposed in the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. 7-day food diaries recorded by patients estimated dietary intakes.

On 6 months follow up, the total cholesterol levels were decreased by 21.8 mg% in the group with high fibre low fat vegetarian diet whereas patients in ADA diet recorded an increase of 0.2mg%. 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 aforementioned results demonstrate that a high-fibre vegetarian diet represents an effective means of controlling lipid abnormalities in type 2 diabetics.