Effect of Almond Consumption on Metabolic Risk Factors—Glucose Metabolism, Hyperinsulinemia, Selected Markers of Inflammation: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

A large percentage of the Indian population has diabetes or is at risk of pre-diabetes. Almond consumption has shown benefits on cardiometabolic risk factors in adults. This study explored the effect of almond consumption on determinants of metabolic dysfunction—blood glucose, lipids, insulin and selected inflammatory markers in adolescents and young adults aged 16–25 years from Mumbai city. This randomized controlled trial was conducted for a period of 90 days on individuals with impaired levels of fasting glucose levels between 100–125 mg/dL (5.6–6.9 mmol/L) and 2-h post-glucose value 140–199 mg/dL (7.8–11.0 mmol/L) and/or fasting insulin (≥15 mIU/ml)/stimulated insulin (≥80 mIU/ml). Of 1,313 individuals screened, 421 met the inclusion criteria, of which 275 consented to participate and 219 completed the trial. The trial was registered with Clinical Trials Registry India (CTRI) CTRI/2018/02/011927. The almonds group (n = 107) consumed 56 g almonds daily, the control group (n = 112) was provided an iso-caloric cereal-pulse based snack. At baseline and endline, blood glucose, insulin, HbA1c, LDL-c, HDL-c, total and ox-cholesterol, triglycerides, hs-CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, adiponectin, leptin were measured and HOMA-IR and FG:FI ratios were calculated. Dietary intakes were assessed. The anthropometric measurements, biochemical markers as well as macronutrient intakes did not differ significantly between the two groups at baseline. Almond consumption significantly decreased HbA1c, total cholesterol and LDL-c. Stimulated insulin decreased post-intervention in both groups, but the decrease was greater in the almonds group. Fasting glucose was reduced post intervention in the controls with no change in the almonds group. FG:FI ratio decreased in the almonds group. TNF-α and IL-6 decreased in the almonds group, while it increased in the control group. Our results showed that almonds reduced HbA1c, LDL-c and total cholesterol levels in just 12 weeks of consumption in these adolescents and young adults who were at risk for developing diabetes. Almonds can be considered as part of food-based strategies for preventing pre-diabetes.Clinical Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: CTRI/2018/02/011927.

The effect of almond intake on glycemic control: A systematic review and dose–response meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Finally, 24 RCTs consist of 31 arms were included in our meta-analysis (Abazarfard, Salehi, & Keshavarzi, 2014;C. E. Berryman, West, Fleming, Bordi, & Kris-Etherton, 2015;Bowen et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2017a;Coates et al, 2020;Cohen & Johnston, 2011;Damasceno et al, 2011;de Souza, Gomes, de Castro, & Mota, 2018;Dhillon, Tan, & Mattes, 2016;Dhillon et al, 2018;Dikariyanto et al, 2020Dikariyanto et al, , 2020Hou et al, 2018;Jenkins et al, 2008;Jung, Chen, Blumberg, & Kwak, 2018;Kalgaonkar et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2017;Li et al, 2011;Madan et al, 2021;Richmond, Williams, Mann, Brown, & Chisholm, 2012;Sabaté, Haddad, Tanzman, Li et al, 2011;Madan et al, 2021;Richmond et al, 2012;Sabaté et al, 2003;Tan & Mattes, 2013;M. Wien et al, 2010;M.…”

“…Wien et al, 2010;M. Wien et al, 2003), nine studies reported HbA1C (Bowen et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2017a;Cohen & Johnston, 2011;de Souza et al, 2018;Hou et al, 2018;Kalgaonkar et al, 2011;Madan et al, 2021;Richmond et al, 2012;M. Wien et al, 2010), 16 studies with 22 arms reported insulin (Bowen et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2017a;Coates et al, 2020; Records identified through database searching: PubMed, Scopus, ISI web of science, the Cochrane Library (n = 2,071)…”

“…Records screened by title/abstracts et al, 2003) and four trials on female (Abazarfard et al, 2014;de Souza et al, 2018;Kalgaonkar et al, 2011;Richmond et al, 2012). The eligible trials were published between 2003 and 2020 (Abazarfard et al, 2014; C. E. Berryman et al, 2015;Bowen et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2017a;Coates et al, 2020;Cohen & Johnston, 2011;Damasceno et al, 2011;de Souza et al, 2018;Dhillon et al, 2016;Dhillon et al, 2018;Dikariyanto, Berry, et al, 2020;Dikariyanto, Smith, et al, 2020;Hou et al, 2018;Jenkins et al, 2008;Jung et al, 2018;Kalgaonkar et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2017;Li et al, 2011;Madan et al, 2021;Richmond et al, 2012;Sabaté et al, 2003;Tan & Mattes, 2013;M. Wien et al, 2010;M.…”

“…These trials performed on healthy (Dhillon et al, 2018;Dikariyanto, Berry, et al, 2020;Dikariyanto, Smith, et al, 2020;Jenkins et al, 2008;Madan et al, 2021;Sabaté et al, 2003) overweight and obese (Abazarfard et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2017a;Coates et al, 2020;de Souza et al, 2018;Dhillon et al, 2016;Jenkins et al, 2008;Jung et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2017;M. Wien et al, 2003) individuals and patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (Kalgaonkar et al, 2011), hypercholesterolemic (C. E. Berryman et al, 2015;Damasceno et al, 2011), pre-diabetes (Tan & Mattes, 2013;M.…”

“…Cohen & Johnston, 2011;Dikariyanto, Berry, et al, 2020;Dikariyanto, Smith, et al, 2020;Jenkins et al, 2008;Kalgaonkar et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2017;Li et al, 2011;Madan et al, 2021;Richmond et al, 2012;Tan & Mattes, 2013;M. Wien et al, 2010;M.…”