Relationship between Meal Size and Frequency and Plasma Insulin Response in Man

Abstract

The effect of varying the size of a meal on plasma insulin was determined in eight normal male adults. The effect of consuming one half of a meal at 0 time and one half at two hours later was also studied. Each subject was studied on four days, one day when he consumed a whole meal (580 calories) of natural foodstuffs; one day, one-half the meal; one day, one quarter of the meal, and one day when he consumed one half the meal at 0 time and the remainder two hours later. When fractions of the meals were ingested, all ingredients were decreased proportionately. As meal size was increased, a log-dose relationship was observed to characterize the comparison of meal size ingested to plasma insulin response. When on the fourth day the subjects consumed the meal in fractions, the mean sum of the plasma insulin responses was identical to that observed when the meal was eaten at one time. The results suggest that over a four-hour period, the plasma insulin response is a function of the magnitude of the load of calories requiring disposition and that the response does not appear to be influenced by the frequency with which the calories are ingested. DIABETES 17: 72-75, February, 1968.

Effects of size, time of day and sequence of meal ingestion on carbohydrate tolerance in normal subjects

“…At 08.00 h there were no differences in plasma glucose responses among the three sizes of meals. These observations are consistent with those of Cohn et al [8] who noted no differences in post-prandial plasma glucose responses to meals varying in size from 145 to 580 calories when ingested at 08.00 h. The effects of varying size of meals at other times of the day were not examined by those investigators.…”

“…The correlation between meal size and post-prandial plasma insulin concentrations reported previously [8] is consistent with the well established relationship between glucose load and plasma insulin responses [3,[5][6][7]. The post-prandial plasma insulin responses in this study were potentially mediated by both plasma glucose and GIP concentrations.…”

“…Plasma glucose responses to varying amounts of orally administered glucose have been reported to correlate with the size of the glucose load in some studies [1][2][3][4][5] but not in others [6,7]. No correlation between meals of different sizes and post-prandial plasma glucose responses was observed in the only study to examine this relationship [8]. Although a diurnal variation in tolerance to oral glucose loads has been consistently demonstrated [9][10][11][12][13][14], it has not been uniformly observed following consumption of mixed meals [15][16][17][18].…”

Comparison of the Effects of Two Weeks’ Intervention with Different Meal Frequencies on Glucose Metabolism, Insulin Sensitivity and Lipid Levels in Non-lnsulin-Dependent Diabetic Patients

“…In 1933, Ellis [24] reported that a nibbling regime improved carbohydrate metabolism in IDDM subjects, and in healthy males Fabry et al [5] found a positive correlation between the meal frequency and the glucose tolerance. Short-term experiments (1-2 days) and more prolonged studies in healthy subjects have demonstrated both beneficial effects [4,6,[8][9][10] and no effects [7,II,12,25] on the glu cose and insulin levels. In NIDDM, Beebe et al [16] found no differences in glucose and insulin levels during a 26-hour period with different patterns of food intake.…”

Energy Thermodynamics Revisited: Energy intake strategies for optimizing athlete body composition and performance

“…For instance, an eating pattern that is infrequent and allows blood sugar to drop below normal levels may also result in a hyperinsulinemic response at the next eating opportunity (Bertelsen et al, 1993;Fáibry & Tepperman, 1970). Insulin is produced exponentially to the caloric load of the food consumed, so eating an excessively large meal (regardless of its composition) would also result in excess insulin production with the concomitant increase in fat and, because of the associated maintenance of ghrelin, more total energy intake and weight (Toshinai et al, 2001;Cohn, Berger & Norton, 1968). Higher total body fat or higher abdominal fat, regardless of the food consumed, also results in hyperinsulinemia and all of its sequellae (Evans, Hoffman, Kalkhoff, & Kissebah, 1984;Peiris, Mueller, Smith, Struve, & Kissebah, 1986).…”