Paolo Pozzilli
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is currently one of the most challenging problems facing national healthcare systems worldwide. Nutritional therapy represents an effective option for managing this disease. Formulating a universal diet, for T2D patients can be difficult, since cultural preferences influence patient acceptance and adherence to recommended diets. Macrobiotic diets contain a large proportion of whole grains. The Ma-Pi 2 diet, conceived by Mario Pianesi, is a kind of macrobiotic diet; it is high in dietary fiber, in line with dietary recommendations by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. We perform a randomized, controlled, open-label, 21-day trial in 56 patients with T2D comparing the Ma-Pi 2 diet with standard (control) diet recommended by professional societies for T2D treatment. After correcting for age, gender, BMI at baseline, and physical activity, there was a significantly greater reduction in the primary outcomes FBG (95% CI: 7.79; 13.46) and PPBG (95% CI: 5.39,; 31.44) in those patients receiving the Ma-Pi 2 diet compared with those receiving the control diet. Statistically significantly greater reductions in the BMI, body weight, waist and hip circumference were also found in the Ma-Pi2 diet group compared with the control group. All patients in the Ma-Pi2 diet group had their glucose levels reduced to the point of being comparable to subjects without T2D (target values), following 21-day intervention in a supervised environment. Long-term follow-up studies are needed to confirm these results and the use of this diet in real-life practice must also be investigated to demonstrate patient acceptance and compliance.
Email: P.Pozzilli@unicampus.it
