Pilot study: 5:2 diet can improve health of type 2 diabetes patients

Conducted by the University of South Australia, the research discovered that the use of the 5:2 diet resulted in a significant reduction of blood glucose levels and weight loss.

The diet stipulates calorie restriction for two non-consecutive days in a week and unconstrained eating in each of the other five days. However, while fasting diets like this seen a wave of recent media attention, but there is very little scientific research to support such approaches.

Over the three months of the study, the 35 type 2 diabetes patients saw their haemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels decrease by an average of 0.6% and also lost weight by 6-7kg. the results were then compared to a daily restricted diet.

The findings have prompted a larger year-long study to begin in the coming months, which aims to involve 100 participants.

Sharayah Carter, a nutritionist who conducted the study, said there had been much research to support the new diet, but none yet that looked into its potential benefit for people with T2DM.

“One of the major struggles with weight loss is people’s ability to stick to a daily-restricted calorie diet​,” Carter said.

“On top of that, people with T2DM have medication to consider. A person with diabetes is not going to be able to take the same amount of medication over those two days because they’re not eating enough food to support that medication​.

“What we found was that two days of severe energy restriction basically achieves similar results to a daily restriction diet​.”

The results showed that while the IER diet has less of an impact on lifestyle and medication, both diets achieved similar reductions on weight and in haemoglobin A1C levels.

The standard calorie restriction diet consisted of 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,500 calories for men. All participants were asked to walk an extra 2,000 steps per day to increase their level of exercise.

People who are obese are up to 80 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with a body mass index of 22. Weight loss can help control and possibly halt the disease.

“IER uses short periods of severe energy restriction—500 calories for women and 600 calories for men—followed by periods of habitual eating to achieve similar health improvements as daily dieting, but unlike some IER diets, does not require non-fasting days to involve restricted dieting​,” Carter said.

“We achieved a 0.6% drop in HbA1c in both groups, which was a significant drop in that time frame and importantly all our participants who were on medication reduced their dosages which is important for both the individual and the health budget​.

“Essentially you are achieving the same total energy restriction after seven days by following the two-day restriction and getting the same results​.”