Liquid meal replacements cut cardiometabolic risk factors

(HealthDay)—Liquid meal replacements in weight loss diets lead to modest reductions in cardiometabolic risk factors for overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a review published online March 28 in Diabetes Care.

Jarvis C. Noronha, from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review of randomized trials of two weeks or longer assessing the effect of liquid meal replacements versus traditional weight loss diets on cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight/obese patients with type 2 diabetes. The authors included nine studies with 961 patients.

The researchers found mean differences for body weight −2.37 kg, body mass index −0.87 kg/m², body fat −1.66 percent, waist circumference −2.24 cm, hemoglobin A1c −0.43 percent, fasting glucose −0.63 mmol/L, fasting insulin −11.83 pmol/L, systolic blood pressure −4.97 mm Hg, and diastolic blood pressure −1.98 mm Hg. No effect was seen for meal replacement on blood lipids. Because of imprecision and/or inconsistency, the overall certainty of the evidence was low to moderate.

“More high-quality randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of liquid meal replacements as part of a weight loss diet on cardiometabolic risk factors are needed to address the uncertainties and assess whether there are differences among different types of liquid meal replacements,” the authors write.

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