A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, will look at whether eating small amounts of certain nutrients before meals could improve blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
The COMBINE study, which is led by Professor Kostas Tsintzas and Dr Pardeep Pabla from the School of Medicine, is looking to recruit people with type 2 diabetes, which is controlled by dietary therapy and metformin, for the ground-breaking new study.
The team will look at whether by consuming small amounts of specific nutrients before breakfast, lunch and dinner, (known as consumption of nutritional preloads), can improve their blood glucose levels.
They will also look at whether those preloads can increase the feeling of fullness and reduce hunger, which is known as satiety.
The research is being sponsored and funded by Nestlé Health Science.
Dr Pardeep Pabla said: "Controlling blood sugar levels is vital in the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Over time, high blood sugar levels can increase the risk of developing several other diseases such as cardiovascular disease (such as heart attacks and stroke).
"We know that certain nutritional preloads can lower blood sugar levels in people who have T2D. In our exciting new study, we are investigating whether consuming two nutritional preloads (medium chain triglycerides and whey protein) can lower the levels of blood sugar after meals.
If the results from this study are encouraging, then nutritional preloads may be a potential novel strategy to delay or even prevent the use of antidiabetic medications and the progression of other adverse health conditions that often accompany diabetes."
People who are interested in taking part will be required to visit the University of Nottingham Medical School on five occasions, have their health, dietary patterns, physical activity status and body composition assessed.
Patients who take part in the study will be given a personal glucose monitoring device (Freestyle Libre 2) for each experimental visit and will be able see how their blood sugar levels are changing throughout the day.
