In a new study, researchers found drinking liquid meal replacements may help cut heart disease risk in overweight and obese people who have type 2 diabetes.
The finding highlights the importance of weight loss in protecting against heart disease.
The research was conducted by researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Liquid meal replacement is a drink used as a substitute for a solid food meal. It usually has controlled quantities of calories and nutrients and includes the required vitamins and minerals.
Liquid meal replacements are often used for weight loss, building muscles or medical purposes.
In the current study, the team aimed to see how liquid meal replacements may influence heart disease risks in overweight and obese people with type 2 diabetes.
They conducted a systematic literature review of studies that examined the effects of liquid meal replacements in weight loss diets.
In these studies, participants took liquid meal replacements for more than two weeks. A total of nine studies with 961 patients were included.
The team found that liquid meal replacements in weight loss diets lead to modest reductions in heart disease risk factors for overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes
Compared with traditional weight loss diets, liquid meal replacements helped reduce more body weight, body mass index, body fat, waist circumference, hemoglobin A1c, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure.
No effect was seen for liquid meal replacement on blood lipids. Because of imprecision and/or inconsistency, the overall certainty of the evidence was low to moderate.
The team suggests that liquid meal replacements could reduce many risk factors of heart disease, such as body weight, body fat, high blood pressure, and high waist circumference.
Future work needs to examine the benefits of liquid meal replacements as part of a weight loss diet on reducing heart risk factors.
The lead author of the study is Jarvis C. Noronha from St. Michael’s Hospital.
The study is published in the journal Diabetes Care.
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