Effects of almond consumption on lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Abstract

The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the effects of almond consumption on the lipid profiles of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Eligible trials were searched from four electronic databases until Jan 2020. Five eligible articles were included in the final quantitative analysis. Overall, meta-analysis could not show any beneficial effect of almond consumption on total cholesterol (TC) weighted mean difference (WMD: 0.65 mg/dL, 95% CI: −7.52–8.82, p = .87), triglyceride (TG; WMD: 1.59 mg/dL, 95% CI: −21.77–24.96, p = .89), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; WMD: −5.40 mg/dL, 95% CI: −13.30–2.50, p = .18), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; WMD: 1.57 mg/dL, 95% CI: −0.95–4.10, p = .22). However, subgroup analyses showed that serum LDL-C levels were significantly reduced in trials administered > 50 g/d almond. The data suggest that consumption of almond could not improve lipid profile in patients with T2DM.

Keywords:

• Almond
• lipid profile
• type 2 diabetes mellitus
• meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data from this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.