Nutritional Components Relevant to Type-2-Diabetes: Dietary Sources, Metabolic Functions and Glycaemic Effects
Author(s): Prasad VSS, Adapa D, Vana DR, Choudhury A, Asadutullah J, Chatterjee A
Abstract
Type-2-diabetes mellitus [T2DM] is a global non-communicable disease with dietary causes. This chronic disease is escalating to epidemic proportion. Medication expenditure puts additional burden on the nations already deprived of economy due to loss in terms of disability adjusted life years. Since there is no permanent cure as yet, dietary prevention and management remains the best mitigation strategy. Hyperglycemia is the characteristic symptom of T2DM. The glycaemic propensity of the food/diet is regulated at bio-accessibility, bio-availability and metabolic levels and is determined by the nutrient content and composition. Though qualitative information of certain dietary components on glycaemic regulation of the foods has been documented, studies pertaining to their effect and mechanisms have been fragmentary across several reports over the period of many years. Therefore, the present review has been conducted to interpret individual and synergistic effects of the most relevant nutritional components on the glucose propensity, insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. This review identifies and enlists some of the most relevant nutrients to T2DM; provides various dietary sources along with their content in the context of their glycaemic indices and tracks the physiological participation of amino acid, fatty acids, cholesterol and dietary fiber. The pertinence of the nutritional components to different aspects of diabetic pathophysiology has been categorized. This study is of significance in formulations of diet and food supplements, meal planning as well as nutrition policy and regulation. Some of the identified nutrients may also function as metabolic bio- markers for prognosis and as potential therapeutic agents.
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