{"id":19028,"date":"2014-05-16T12:10:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T12:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=19028"},"modified":"2014-05-16T12:10:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T12:10:48","slug":"two-meals-a-day-can-treat-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=19028","title":{"rendered":"Two meals a day ‘can treat diabetes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only eating breakfast and lunch may be more effective at managing type 2 diabetes than eating smaller, more regular meals, scientists say.<\/p>\n

Researchers in Prague fed two groups of 27 people the same calorie diet spread over two or six meals a day.<\/p>\n

They found volunteers who ate two meals a day lost more weight than those who ate six, and their blood sugar dropped.<\/p>\n

Experts said the study supported “existing evidence” that fewer, larger meals were the way forward.<\/p>\n

Timing important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Type 2 diabetes<\/a>\u00a0occurs when the body does not produce enough of the hormone insulin, which controls the amount of sugar in the blood, meaning blood sugar levels become too high.<\/p>\n

If untreated, it can lead to heart disease and stroke, nerve damage, light-sensitive eyes and kidney disease.<\/p>\n

About 2.9 million people in the UK are affected by diabetes, 90% of whom have the type 2 form of the disease.<\/p>\n

Current advice in the UK recommends three meals a day, with healthy snacks.<\/p>\n

Scientists at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague divided a group of 54 volunteers aged 30 to 70 with type 2 diabetes into two groups of 27 people.<\/p>\n

Volunteers were then given either a six-meal-a-day diet (A6) for 12 weeks followed by a two-meal day diet (B2), or vice versa.<\/p>\n

The study compared two meals with six meals – as the latter accorded with current practice advice in the Czech Republic, researchers said.<\/p>\n

Each diet contained on average 1,700 calories a day.<\/p>\n

‘Very pleasing’ result<\/strong><\/p>\n

The B2 group ate between 06:00 and 10:00 and then between 12:00 and 16:00, and the A6 group ate their food throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Weight loss for the B2 group averaged 1.4kg (3lb) more than A6, and they lost about 4cm (1.5in) more from their waistlines.<\/p>\n

Lead scientist Dr Hana Kahleova, at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, said the results were “very pleasing”.<\/p>\n

She said: “The patients were really afraid they would get hungry in the evening but feelings of hunger were lower as the patients ate until they were satisfied.<\/p>\n

“But when they ate six times a day the meals were not leaving them feeling satisfied. It was quite surprising.”<\/p>\n

‘Larger studies needed’<\/p>\n

Dr Kahleova said the study could apply to people without diabetes who were trying to lose weight.<\/p>\n

Dr Richard Elliott, research communications officer at Diabetes UK, said the study added to evidence that eating fewer, larger meals a day could be more effective than smaller, frequent meals at helping people manage their condition.<\/p>\n

He added: “However, larger studies over longer periods of time will be needed to back up these findings before we would make changes to the dietary advice given to people with type 2 diabetes.”<\/p>\n

Dr Elliot said eating a healthy, balanced diet, being active and maintaining a healthy weight, alongside taking any medication was “vital” to effectively manage the condition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only eating breakfast and lunch may be more effective at managing type 2 diabetes than eating smaller, more regular meals, scientists say. Researchers in Prague fed two groups of 27 people the same calorie diet spread over two or six meals a day. They found volunteers who ate two meals a day lost more weight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,745,746,335],"class_list":["post-19028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese","tag-international-friendly","tag-kwesi-appiah","tag-newmont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}