Post-prandial Glucose and Insulin Levels in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients After Consumption of Ready-to-eat Mixed Meals

The current study followed a prospective, three-way, cross-over design. Twenty four patients with T2DM consumed three ready-to-eat mixed meals, i.e. "wild greens pie" (meal 1), "chicken burgers with boiled vegetables" (meal 2) and "vegetable moussaka" (meal 3) and an oral glucose load, all providing 50g of carbohydrates. Venous blood was collected at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes postprandial for serum glucose and insulin measurements.

The test meals were consumed by study participants between 8:30 to 9:00 am and within 10-15 minutes under a researcher's supervision, following collection of the fasting blood sample. No parallel fluid intake was allowed. The portion size in the case of each one of the three test meals was adjusted to contain 50g of carbohydrates. However, the three test meals were considerably differentiating among them with respect to their content in calories and the remaining macronutrients.

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects are eligible if they are 45-75 years of age
• non-insulin-dependent T2DM with an elapsed time since diagnosis of more than 3 years
• Body Mass Index (BMI) value higher than 20 kg/m2
• HbA1c levels of 6.5 to 11%

Exclusion criteria

• insulin-dependent T2DM
• cardiovascular (i.e. coronary heart disease, stroke etc.)
• liver and/or renal disease