Walnuts to Achieve Lasting NUTrition to Prevent Diabetes
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2019-08-05
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Prediabetes is a precursor of type 2 diabetes and an independent risk factor for
cardiovascular disease, and currently affects one-quarter of the population of the United
States. Individuals of overweight or obese BMI are at particular high risk for incident
diabetes. A major modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes is poor dietary quality, and
improvement of dietary quality can effectively delay and even prevent type 2 diabetes.
Interventions to improve dietary quality thus far, however, rely on short-term intensive
clinically designed meals replacing the entire diet which have poor sustainability.
Persistent improvements to daily dietary patterns are often difficult without directed
guidance, and overall dietary quality in the United States remains poor. The identification
of a practical, daily dietary intervention to improve dietary quality and prevent diabetes in
those at high risk remains unknown. The investigators propose to enroll 40 individuals with
diagnosed prediabetes into a randomized controlled pilot study and provide a daily walnut
supplementation intervention to determine feasibility and acceptability of the supplement.
The investigators will then determine preliminary efficacy on metabolic markers and will
investigate associations between dietary quality and circulating levels of branched-chain
amino acids. The goal is to implement a whole-food supplement to improve dietary quality in
patients with prediabetes as a tool for future type 2 diabetes prevention.