Egg Ingestion in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: Effects on Glycemic Control, Anthropometry, Diet Quality and Cardiometabolic Status. A Randomized, Controlled Trial
Complete Project
Title:
Egg Ingestion in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: Effects on Glycemic Control, Anthropometry, Diet Quality and Cardiometabolic Status. A Randomized, Controlled Trial
Status:
Completed
Topic:
Cardiovascular Health / Endothelial Function*
Funding Source:
Egg Nutrition Center
Funding Period:
2013-2015
Study Design:
Randomized controlled crossover trial
Purpose:
To determine whether adults with diabetes could safely include eggs in their diets. For many years, healthcare providers have advised patients at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), including those with diabetes, to limit intake of eggs due to their cholesterol content. The prevailing view has been that dietary cholesterol could affect serum cholesterol, which could raise CVD risk. However, results of early studies that seemed to link cholesterol intake and CVD risk were later questioned due to study design flaws. More recent studies had found no association between egg intake and CVD. The PRC’s own prior studies found no adverse effects of egg intake by healthy adults, adults at risk for CVD, or adults with coronary artery disease. Excluding eggs from the diets of diabetes patients could potentially lead them to eat other foods high in starch and sugar, which could increase CVD risk due to long-term effects of elevated blood glucose on blood vessels.
Further Study Details:
This study compared the effects of two ad libitum diets (one including 10-14 eggs per week for 12 weeks vs. one excluding eggs for 12 weeks) on diet quality and health outcomes in adults with diabetes. Each participant was assigned to the intervention and control diets at different time points during the study. We expected to find that including eggs in the diet would lead to improved diet quality and health outcomes, compared to excluding eggs.
Findings:
Of the 34 enrolled participants, 32 completed the study. They were mostly male (59%) and white (76%), with a mean age of 64.5 years. Nearly all (97%) were taking diabetes medicines, 82% were on lipid-lowering medicines, and 71% were on blood pressure medicines. Including 2 daily eggs in the habitual diet of these adults: (1) did not lead to improved diet quality; (2) Had no significant effects on hemoglobin A1C levels compared to baseline or egg exclusion; (3) did not improve insulin resistance compared to egg exclusion; (4) did not improve systolic or diastolic blood pressure compared to egg exclusion, but led to a small significant improvement in systolic blood pressure compared to baseline; (5) significantly reduced body weight, waist circumference, BMI, visceral fat, and percent body fat, compared to egg exclusion. Excluding eggs for 12 weeks from the habitual diet significantly increased insulin resistance compared to baseline. Our data suggest that short-term daily inclusion of eggs in the habitual diet of adults with Type 2 diabetes can lead to improvements in blood glucose control, systolic blood pressure, and body composition measures.
Eligibility:
Adults diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the last 1 to 10 years, who were overweight and lacked any advanced complications from diabetes. This included men at least 35 years of age, and postmenopausal women who were not on hormone replacement therapy.
Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center