A new fructose-free, resistant-starch type IV-enriched enteral formula improves glycaemic control and cardiovascular risk biomarkers when administered for six weeks to elderly diabetic patients.

BACKGROUND: Reducing the dietary glycaemic response has been proposed as a way to reduce the risk of diabetes complications.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the glycaemic control and cardiovascular risk biomarkers in fragile, elderly type 2 diabetes patients after the intake of a new fructose-free diabetes-specific formula enriched with resistant-starch type IV and high in monounsaturated fatty acids.

METHODS: Forty-one type 2 diabetes patients aged 78.9 ± 2.8 years were fed exclusively with an enteral diabetes-specific formula for 6 weeks. Data were collected at baseline and after 6 weeks of feeding. Carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and inflammatory and cardiovascular risk biomarkers were measured to evaluated the course of diabetes complications.

RESULTS: Blood glycated haemoglobin significantly decreased after the intervention (6.1 ± 0.1 vs. 5.8 ± 0.1 %; p< 0,045), as well as monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and soluble E-selectin (p < 0.05), while soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 tended to decrease from baseline to 6 weeks (p = 0.084 and p = 0.05, respectively).

CONCLUSION: The new product improves glycaemic control and cardiovascular risk without altering lipid metabolism, which is useful for the prevention of diabetic complications. Longer intervention studies are needed in order to validate these results in a larger population.