BACKGROUND

The projected rise in the world prevalence of diabetes mellitus poses new challenges in poor countries. Soluble fibre incorporation into the diet of diabetic patients has been shown to reduce the glyceamia and lipaemia of diabetes mellitus.

METHODS

The hypolipidemic effect of soluble fibre supplementation using the seed of locally available legume tree plant--Afzelia africana was studied in 13 Nigerian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The subjects were randomly selected from the out patient diabetes mellitus clinic of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi. They were fed with unsupplemented and supplemented standardized diet for the first 2 days and subsequent 4 days respectively. The fibre supplementation was prepared and incorporated into the meal portions according to previously described technique and acceptability study.

METHODS

The fasting serum levels of TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C and HDL/TC ratio were estimated before and after the unsupplemented and fibre supplemented meals. The data obtained were analyzed using paired t-test. The correlation between the total energy requirement and the reduction in TC, pre and post fibre supplemented meals were determined using the linear coefficients.

RESULTS

The results showed a significant reduction (P<0.05) in mean fasting TG, LDL-C and improvement in HDL/TC ratio following a 4 day supplemented meal. The relation between the difference in TC before and after the supplemented meal and total energy requirement was not significant (P> 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The exploitation and incorporation of this source of soluble fibre in diabetic diets reduced the lipaemia of diabetes mellitus.