Fiber Intake and Vegan Lifestyle Behaviour on Blood Glucose Control in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Case-Control Study.

AIMS: The study aims to determine the relationship between blood glucose level control with a vegetarian diet and vegan lifestyle behavior in patients with T2DM. BACKGROUND: Diabetes prevalence escalates each year. Nutritional therapy is one of its management, by choosing a suitable diet to maintain nutrient intake. METHODS: This was a case-control study including 46 patients with T2DM divided into 24 people for the case group and 22 people for the control group selected using purposive sampling method. Data was obtained using a general questionnaire; food intake with the SQFFQ; the 8-item Morisky Scale questionnaire, to assess medication adherence; the IPAQ, to assess physical activity. Blood sugar measurements were observed by measuring the respondents' fasting blood sugar in the last six months. The data was then analyzed using Chi-square statistical test and logistic regression. RESULTS: The results indicate a relationship between a vegetarian diet and a vegan lifestyle behavior that control blood sugar levels in patients with T2DM (P = 0.004). Diabetic patients on a nonvegetarian diet had a six times greater risk of having uncontrolled blood sugar (OR = 6.476). A significant relationship was found between a vegetarian diet and fasting blood sugar control based on bivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, fiber intake was most significant to blood glucose control (OR=18.824; 95% CI 2.795-126.795). CONCLUSION: Vegetarian diet affects blood sugar control in T2DM patients. The type of nutritional intake needs to be more considered rather than the vegetarian diet in general, so that nutritional therapy in diabetics can be started by increasing fiber intake.

Vitamin D pathway-related gene polymorphisms and their association with metabolic diseases: A literature review.

PURPOSE: Given that the relationship between vitamin D status and metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains unclear, this review will focus on the genetic associations, which are less prone to confounding, between vitamin D-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and metabolic diseases. METHODS: A literature search of relevant articles was performed on PubMed up to December 2019. Those articles that had examined the association of vitamin D-related SNPs with obesity and/or T2D were included. Two reviewers independently evaluated the eligibility for the inclusion criteria and extracted the data. In total, 73 articles were included in this review. RESULTS: There is a lack of research focusing on the association of vitamin D synthesis-related genes with obesity and T2D; however, the limited available research, although inconsistent, is suggestive of a protective effect on T2D risk. While there are several studies that investigated the vitamin D metabolism-related SNPs, the research focusing on vitamin D activation, catabolism and transport genes is limited. Studies on CYP27B1, CYP24A1 and GC genes demonstrated a lack of association with obesity and T2D in Europeans; however, significant associations with T2D were found in South Asians. VDR gene SNPs have been extensively researched; in particular, the focus has been mainly on BsmI (rs1544410), TaqI (rs731236), ApaI (rs7975232) and FokI (rs2228570) SNPs. Even though the association between VDR SNPs and metabolic diseases remain inconsistent, some positive associations showing potential effects on obesity and T2D in specific ethnic groups were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this literature review suggests that ethnic-specific genetic associations are involved. Further research utilizing large studies is necessary to better understand these ethnic-specific genetic associations between vitamin D deficiency and metabolic diseases.