Abstract
Dietary choices play a key role in insulin sensitivity among diabetes patients. An 8-week pilot study was conducted to evaluate whether a mostly plant-based dietary program will lead to improvement in biochemical markers in adults with diabetes. The dietary program included educational presentations, weekly cooking demonstrations and small group discussions. A sample of thirty-two adults with diabetes (types 1 and 2) were recruited and seventeen (53%) completed the study. Matched-pair tests and Fishers exact tests were used to compare the changes in means and proportion of the participants’ responses. There were changes in HbA1c, lipids, CRP (mg/L), cholesterol (mg/dL), HDL (mg/dL), triglycerides (mg/dL), LDL (mg/dL), non-HDL (mg/dL), Insulin (uIU/mL), AST (U/L), ALT (U/L), weight (lbs), systolic blood pressure (mmHg), diastolic (mmHg). The mean (std) age for the matched pair participant is 60.5 (11.35). Five type 1 and twelve type 2 diabetes patients showed a significant improvement in HbA1c (p = 0.001), weight (p = 0.002), intake of vegetables per day (p-value = 0.003), intake of plant-based protein (p-value < 0.001) and self-reported reduction in fatigue and improvement in energy levels. Our 8-week dietary program showed an improvement in biochemical markers and positive attitudes toward the adoption of plant-based diets.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-12-2021
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/diabetology2040024
Related Content
The data for the analysis can be found on GitHub at https://github.com/reubenadat/MDPI/blob/f5175b3bb57deb89175c62b0be72e5025d939303/PlantBased.xlsx.
Repository Citation
Adatorwovor, Reuben; Sharma, Nisha; McCoy, Dakota; Wasserstrom, Sharon; Robinson, Matthew; Nyenhuis, Jacquelyn; and Suryanarayanan, Sowmya, "The Efficacy of Plant-Based Dietary Program in Patients with Diabetes: A Pilot Study" (2021). Biostatistics Faculty Publications. 59.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/biostatistics_facpub/59
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Diabetology, v. 2, issue 4.
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).