Dietary fibre enrichment, blood pressure, lipoprotein profile and gut hormones in NIDDM patients.

The influence of a beet-fibre enriched diet (mean 40 g FibrexR, 27 g dietary fibre per day) on blood pressure, plasma lipoproteins and glycaemic control was studied in 12 non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDD) patients. The effect on gastrointestinal hormones was also investigated. Beet-fibre and control diets were given in randomized order for 8 weeks each. During the beet-fibre diet the systolic blood pressure decreased (P less than 0.05) and the HDL-cholesterol levels increased (P less than 0.05) compared to values before the study. There was a tendency for systolic blood pressure to be lower also in the control period, but this was not statistically significant. After both diet periods the total plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels decreased, as well as the LDL/HDL ratio. Blood glucose levels--fasting or postprandial--and glycosylated haemoglobin were not affected during the two different diet periods. In obese NIDD patients, however, the postprandial insulin levels were lower after the beet-fibre diet compared to the control diet. This subgroup also showed lower fasting values of pancreatic polypeptide and motilin were recorded for the obese patients after the fibre-rich period compared to before the study. Further, increases in postprandial motilin levels, 60-180 min, were found after the fibre-rich period. Investigations with reference to an entero-hormonal mechanism by measuring neurotensin and peptide YY did not show any variations between the diet periods.