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Carbohydrates, glycemic index and diabetes mellitus

Effects of different fractions of whey protein on postprandial lipid and hormone responses in type 2 diabetes

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 799–805 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Exacerbated postprandial lipid responses are associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Dietary proteins influence postprandial lipemia differently, and whey protein has a preferential lipid-lowering effect. We compared the effects of different whey protein fractions on postprandial lipid and hormone responses added to a high-fat meal in type 2 diabetic subjects.

Subjects/Methods:

A total of 12 type 2 diabetic subjects ingested four isocaloric test meals in randomized order. The test meals contained 100 g of butter and 45 g of carbohydrate in combination with 45 g of whey isolate (iso-meal), whey hydrolysate (hydro-meal), α-lactalbumin enhanced whey (lac-meal) or caseinoglycomacropeptide enhanced whey (CGMP-meal). Plasma concentrations of triglyceride, retinyl palmitate, free fatty acid, insulin, glucose, glucagon, glucagon-like peptide 1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide were measured before and at regular intervals until 8-h postprandially.

Results:

We found no statistical significant differences between meals on our primary variable triglyceride. The retinyl palmitate response was higher after the hydro-meal than after the iso- and lac-meal in the chylomicron-rich fraction (P=0.008) while no significant differences were found in the chylomicron-poor fraction. The hydro- and iso-meal produced a higher insulin response compared with the lac- and CGMP-meal (P<0.001). Otherwise no significant differences in the hormone responses were found in the incremental area under the curve over the 480-min period.

Conclusions:

A supplement of four different whey protein fractions to a fat-rich meal had similar effects on postprandial triglyceride responses in type 2 diabetic subjects. Whey isolate and whey hydrolysate caused a higher insulin response.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Tove Skrumsager and Lene Trudsø for excellent technical assistance. This work was carried out as a part of the research programme of the Danish Obesity Research Centre (DanORC, http://www.danorc.dk) and was supported by Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) programme (Systems biology in controlled dietary interventions and cohort studies—SYSDIET, P no. 070014) and supported by a grant from Arla Foods Ingredients amba.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine and Endocrinology, MEA, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

    L S Mortensen, J Holmer-Jensen, M L Hartvigsen, C Thomsen & K Hermansen

  2. Arla Foods Ingredients amba, Viby J, Denmark

    V K Jensen

  3. Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    A Astrup

  4. Federal Research Centre of Nutrition and Food, Institute for Physiology and Biochemistry of Nutrition, Kiel, Germany

    M de Vrese

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    J J Holst

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  1. L S Mortensen
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Correspondence to L S Mortensen.

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Competing interests

Arne Astrup is a scientific member of Global Dairy Platform (Chicago) and receives speaker’s honoraria and research funding from the Danish Dairy Foundation, Arla and Danish Meat Association. Vivian K Jensen is employed by Arla Foods Ingredients amba. The rest of the authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Mortensen, L., Holmer-Jensen, J., Hartvigsen, M. et al. Effects of different fractions of whey protein on postprandial lipid and hormone responses in type 2 diabetes. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 799–805 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.48

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