People with type 2 diabetes may benefit from a higher-protein diet, but it likely depends on whether or not they have a particular gene related to vitamin D metabolism, new research suggests.
The study of overweight adults with type 2 diabetes found that people lost a similar amount of weight over two years whether they followed a high-protein, low-protein, low-fat or high-fat diet.
But differences emerged when it came to dieters’ levels of insulin — a hormone that regulates blood sugar. In type 2 diabetes, the body loses its sensitivity to insulin, which triggers spikes in blood sugar and insulin production.
In this study, some people showed bigger reductions in insulin and improved insulin sensitivity when they ate a higher-protein diet: namely, people with a particular gene variant that boosts blood levels of vitamin D.
It’s not clear yet what it all means, said lead researcher Qibin Qi, an assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.
For one, the information is not practically useful since people do not know the genetics behind their personal vitamin D metabolism.
“Right now, we’re just in the ’concept phase’ of this research,” said Qi.
The study is published online Sept. 29 in the journal Diabetologia.
Vitamin D is best known for its bone-building effects, but it has wide-ranging jobs in the body, such as helping to regulate cell growth, immune function and inflammation, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
Studies have linked low vitamin D levels to an increased risk of various chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, Qi pointed out.
For the current study, his team wanted to see whether genetic variations in vitamin D metabolism made a difference in how people with type 2 diabetes responded to different weight-loss diets.
The study included 645 overweight and obese adults who spent two years on one of four reduced-calorie diets.
Two diets were relatively high in protein, with 25 per cent of daily calories coming from protein; the other two had “average” levels (15 per cent of calories from protein), the study said.
The amount of fat in the diets also varied — with two having relatively low amounts (20 per cent of daily calories), and two were high-fat (40 per cent of calories), the researchers said.
By The Punch
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