Alternative Health Blog

In a randomized, crossover study involving 20 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes and mild hyperlipidemia, results indicate that eating almonds may improve adiposity, glycemic control, and lipid profile. After a two-week run-in period, patients were assigned to either a control National Cholesterol Education Program step II diet (control diet) or an almond diet ( replace 20% of total daily calorie intake; approx. 60 g/day) for 4 weeks. After a 2 week washout period the interventions were crossed over for another 4 weeks. Almond diet was associated with significant decreases in body fat, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the ratio of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, plasma apolipoprotein (apo) B levels, apo B/apo A-1 ratio, nonesterified fatty acid, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index, compared with control diet. Thus, the authors of this study co nclude, "Our results suggested that incorporation of almonds into a healthy diet has beneficial effects on adiposity, glycemic control, and the lipid profile, thereby potentially decreasing the risk for cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus."