Pistachio-supplemented diet beneficial in prediabetes

(HealthDay)—Pistachio consumption is associated with improvements in glucose and cardiometabolic parameters, according to a study published online Aug. 14 in Diabetes Care.

Pablo Hernández-Alonso, from the Universitari Hospital of Sant Joan de Reus in Spain, and colleagues recruited fifty-four individuals with prediabetes to consume one of two diets: a pistachio-supplemented diet (PD; including 57 g/day of pistachios) or a control diet (CD), each for four months in a crossover manner. The periods were separated by a two-week washout period.

The researchers found that after the PD diet versus the CD diet, there were significant decreases in fasting glucose, insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance. With PD there were also significant decreases in other cardiometabolic risk markers, including fibrinogen, oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and platelet factor 4 (P < 0.05), while there was an increase in glucagon-like peptide-1. There were 9 and 6 percent decreases in interleukin-6 mRNA and resistin gene expression, respectively, after the PD (P < 0.05). A 69 percent increase was noted in SLC2A4 expression in CD (P = 0.03 for PD versus CD). During the PD there was a 78.78 percent decrease in cellular glucose uptake by lymphocytes.

"Chronic pistachio consumption is emerging as a useful nutritional strategy for the prediabetic state," the authors write.

The study was funded by American Pistachio Growers and Paramount Farms; one author disclosed being a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the International Nut Council.