The Role of Whole Food Plant-Based Food Intake on Postprandial Glycemia in Type 1 Diabetes

• Published in: The journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 2024-10
• Main Authors: Johnson, Rebecca J, Bergford, Simon, Gal, Robin L, Calhoun, Peter, Neubig, Karissa, Martin, Corby K, Riddell, Michael C, Addala, Ananta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-972X; 1945-7197; 1945-7197
• DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgae725

Whole food plant-based diet (WFPBD), minimally processed foods with limited consumption of animal products, is associated with improved health outcomes. The benefits of WFPBD are underexplored in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The primary objective of this analysis is to evaluate the association between WFPBD on glycemia in individuals with T1D. Utilizing prospectively collected meal events from the Type 1 Diabetes Exercise Initiative, we examined the effect of WFPBD intake on glycemia, determined by the Plant-Based Diet Index (PDI). The PDI calculates overall, healthful (hPDI), and unhealthy PDI (uPDI) to evaluate for degree of processed foods and animal products (i.e. WFPBD). Mixed effects linear regression model assessed time-in-range (TIR), time-above-range, and time-below-range. We analyzed 7,938 meals from 367 participants. TIR improved with increasing hPDI scores, conferring a 4% improvement in TIR between highest and lowest hPDI scores (high hPDI:75%, low hPDI:71%; p