Nutritional shake improves blood sugar in people with diabetes, finds study

Meal replacements are helpful for people with diabetes for being convenient and for providing known calorie amounts with specific macronutrient and micronutrient levels that facilitate meal planning. However the ultimate aim remains optimum blood sugar control.

Blood sugar is commonly considered too high if it is higher than 130 mg/dl before a meal or higher than 180 mg/dl two hours after the first bite of a meal. However, most of the signs and symptoms of high blood sugar don't appear until the blood sugar level is higher than 250 mg/dl.

Diabetes-specific nutritional shakes (DSNS) have clinically shown to improve postprandial blood sugar responses under rigorously controlled experimental conditions. However, there is limited knowledge on how replacing meals and snacks with DSNS impacts blood sugar across the day in free-living people with diabetes eating their diets.

Vikkie A Mustad and associates from the Research and Development Department, USA have published their findings in BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care.

This pilot study was a randomized, multicenter, open-label, parallel, three-arm study conducted at eight clinical centers across North America. Adult participants (at least 30 years of age, male and female), having T2D diabetes, A1C between 7% and 10%, and managed by oral antihyperglycemic medications were enrolled. Researchers evaluated the impact of a diabetes-specific nutritional shake (DSNS) used twice daily by people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) on blood sugar and glycemic response assessed by continuous glucose monitoring.

The key findings of the study were-

• The results of this pilot trial using continuous glucose monitoring provide the first evidence in free-living people with diabetes controlled by oral medications only that replacing a daily breakfast and snack with DSNS has relevant benefits on both dietary and glucose management.
• Glucose responses at breakfast (positive area under the curve and adjusted peak) improved when subjects replaced their usual breakfast with DSNS compared with the No-Product group.
• Subjects who replaced breakfast and a snack with DSNS showed reduced night-time glucose variability compared with the baseline period.
• Subjects who replaced one meal and one afternoon snack per day with DSNS significantly reduced cravings for starchy foods compared with the baseline period.

"Optimizing the use of DSNS as a dietary approach to managing glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes may add valuable information to both patients and healthcare providers," authors said.

Primary source: BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care

For detailed reading log on to 10.1136/bmjdrc-2020-001258