For controlling weight and blood sugar, people with type 2 diabetes should have two large meals (breakfast and lunch) rather than six small meals with the same total calories, a key study has suggested.
"Eating only breakfast and lunch reduced body weight, liver fat content, fasting plasma glucose, C-peptide and glucagon, and increased OGIS (oral glucose insulin sensitivity), more than the same caloric restriction split into six meals," said Hana Kahleová from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic.
The study involved 54 patients (29 men, 25 women) treated with oral diabetes drugs, aged 30-70 years.
They were asked to follow one of two regimens of a restricted calorie diet, each containing 500 calories less than the recommended daily amount; in one programme the meals were six small meals and the other two large meals, breakfast and lunch.
"The results suggest that for type 2 diabetic patients on a calorie-restricted diet, eating larger breakfasts and lunches may be more beneficial than six smaller meals during the day," the researchers noted.
The study appeared in the journal Diabetologia.
